Git-Based Date Management

One of the unique features of this blog is automatic date management using Git history. You don’t need to manually specify creation or update dates!

How It Works

Date Resolution Priority

1. Frontmatter - If you explicitly set a date field, it takes precedence
2. Git History - The first commit timestamp for the file
3. Filesystem - File creation timestamp (fallback)
4. Current Time - Last resort

Update Detection

The blog uses a heuristic on the last commit touching the file to decide whether to show an “updated” date:

// Looks at the most recent commit's diff for this file
function hasSubstantiveChanges(file) {
  // Ignored lines: `updated:` frontmatter, blank lines, HTML comments
  // Substantive when: 5+ remaining changed lines, OR a code fence changed
  // Same-day edits never set `updated` (must be 1+ day after publish)
}

It’s a heuristic, not semantics: a large formatting-only commit (5+ lines) counts as an update, and a big edit followed by a tiny typo commit can clear the updated date. Set updated: in frontmatter when precision matters.

Benefits

Zero Configuration

Just write your post and commit:

# Create new post
echo "---
title: My Post
tags: [hello]
---

Content here" > my-post.md

# Commit
git add my-post.md
git commit -m "Add new post"

# Date is automatically set!

Accurate History

Git provides an accurate, tamper-proof history of when content was created and modified.

No Manual Updates

When you make significant changes, the updated field is automatically set.

Overriding Dates

You can still manually set dates if needed:

---
title: "My Post"
date: 2025-12-25
updated: 2025-12-26
---

Note: dates are display-only. A future date: does not schedule publication — the post goes live as soon as you push it.

Implementation

The magic happens in src/utils/git-dates.ts:

export async function resolvePostDates(
  filePath: string,
  frontmatter: { date?: Date; updated?: Date }
): Promise<DateInfo> {
  // Check frontmatter first
  if (frontmatter.date) {
    return { date: frontmatter.date, source: 'frontmatter' };
  }
  
  // Try Git
  const gitDate = execSync(`git log --format=%aI "${filePath}"`);
  
  // Fallback to filesystem
  // ...
}

Conclusion

Git-based date management makes blogging effortless. Write content, commit, and let the system handle the metadata!