diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index ce915c1..662358b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -19,6 +19,9 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning][].
 ### Fixes
 -   Remove vendored `hiyapyco` code since required changes were released upstream in v0.7.0 ([#45](https://github.com/Boehringer-Ingelheim/dso/pull/45)).
 -   `None` values in `params.in.yaml` can now be used to override anything, e.g. to disable watermarking only in a specific stage ([#45](https://github.com/Boehringer-Ingelheim/dso/pull/45)).
+-   DSO now respects a `DSO_SKIP_CHECK_ASK_PRE_COMMIT` environment variable.  If it is set
+    to anything that evaluates as `True`, we skip the check if pre-commit is installed. This was a
+    requirement introduced by the R API package, see [#50](https://github.com/Boehringer-Ingelheim/dso/issues/50) ([#58](https://github.com/Boehringer-Ingelheim/dso/pull/58)).
 
 ## v0.9.0
 
diff --git a/src/dso/_util.py b/src/dso/_util.py
index 8e72fa1..a766394 100644
--- a/src/dso/_util.py
+++ b/src/dso/_util.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 from functools import cache
 from importlib import resources
 from importlib.abc import Traversable
+from os import environ
 from pathlib import Path
 from typing import Literal
 
@@ -205,7 +206,13 @@ def check_ask_pre_commit(dir: Path):
     Check if pre-commit hooks are installed and asks to install them
 
     If the user declines, info will be written to `.dso.json` to not ask again in the future.
+
+    Additionally, we respect a `DSO_SKIP_CHECK_ASK_PRE_COMMIT` environment variable. If it is set
+    to anything that evaluates as `True`, we skip the check and question altogether. This was a
+    requirement introduced by the R API package: https://github.com/Boehringer-Ingelheim/dso/issues/50.
     """
+    if environ.get("DSO_SKIP_CHECK_ASK_PRE_COMMIT", None):
+        return
     config = _read_dot_dso_json(dir)
     if config.get("check_ask_pre_commit", True):
         project_root = get_project_root(dir)