Git-Based Metadata

The theme automatically displays git-based metadata for each page, including the last modified timestamp and an interactive changelog dropdown.

Requirements

1. Your documentation source files must be tracked in a git repository

2. A configured repository_url in your theme options

Automatic Features

When available, the theme displays:

• Last modified timestamp — when the file was last changed in git

• Changelog dropdown — interactive button showing the last 10 commits affecting the file

• Clickable commit hashes — each links directly to the GitHub commit page

• Full history link — links to the complete commit history on GitHub

Configuration

html_theme_options = {
    ...
    "repository_url": "https://github.com/{your-org}/{your-repo}",
    "repository_branch": "main",  # default: "main"
    "path_to_docs": "docs",  # if docs are in a subfolder

    # Git metadata customization
    "last_modified_date_format": "%b %d, %Y",  # default: "%b %d, %Y"
    "changelog_max_entries": 10,  # default: 10
    ...
}

For Jupyter Book projects:

sphinx:
  config:
    html_theme_options:
      repository_url: "https://github.com/{your-org}/{your-repo}"
      repository_branch: "main"
      path_to_docs: "docs"
      last_modified_date_format: "%b %d, %Y"
      changelog_max_entries: 10

Date Format Options

The last_modified_date_format option accepts Python strftime format codes:

• %b %d, %Y → “Nov 22, 2025” (default)

• %Y-%m-%d → “2025-11-22”

• %B %d, %Y → “November 22, 2025”

• %m/%d/%Y → “11/22/2025”

See the Python strftime documentation for all format codes.

Disabling

Git metadata features are automatically disabled if:

• The source file is not tracked in a git repository

• The repository_url is not configured

• The git commands fail or timeout

No additional configuration is needed.