From 716a3903bbf93630cbbf09fa754d5d183cb3d6a6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Prakhar Verma <connect@iprakharv.com>
Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2026 13:42:18 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] feat: Automate extraction and display of Git metadata

Closes #4

- Implemented _plugins/git_metadata.rb to extract author, creation, and modified dates into frontmatter
- Created _includes/components/footer.html to display metadata
- Updated checkout action depth to fetch full history
---
 .github/workflows/jekyll.yml     |  2 ++
 _includes/components/footer.html | 48 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 _plugins/git_metadata.rb         | 24 ++++++++++++++++
 3 files changed, 74 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 _includes/components/footer.html
 create mode 100644 _plugins/git_metadata.rb

diff --git a/.github/workflows/jekyll.yml b/.github/workflows/jekyll.yml
index 61f2d80..907a608 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/jekyll.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/jekyll.yml
@@ -33,6 +33,8 @@ jobs:
     steps:
       - name: Checkout
         uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          fetch-depth: 0
       - name: Setup Ruby
         # https://github.com/ruby/setup-ruby/releases/tag/v1.207.0
         uses: ruby/setup-ruby@4a9ddd6f338a97768b8006bf671dfbad383215f4
diff --git a/_includes/components/footer.html b/_includes/components/footer.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a38d1c8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/_includes/components/footer.html
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+{% capture footer_custom %}
+  {%- include footer_custom.html -%}
+{% endcapture %}
+<hr>
+<footer>
+  {% if site.back_to_top %}
+    <p><a href="#top" id="back-to-top">{{ site.back_to_top_text }}</a></p>
+  {% endif %}
+
+  {{ footer_custom }}
+
+  {% if site.last_edit_timestamp or site.gh_edit_link %}
+    <div class="d-flex mt-2">
+      {% if site.last_edit_timestamp and site.last_edit_time_format and page.last_modified_date %}
+        <p class="text-small mb-0 mr-2">
+          {% if page.author %}Created by <strong>{{ page.author }}</strong>{% if page.created_at %} on {{ page.created_at | date: site.last_edit_time_format }}{% endif %}. {% endif %}
+          Page last modified: <span class="d-inline-block">{{ page.last_modified_date | date: site.last_edit_time_format }}</span>.
+        </p>
+      {% endif %}
+      {% if
+        site.gh_edit_link and
+        site.gh_edit_link_text and
+        site.gh_edit_repository and
+        site.gh_edit_branch and
+        site.gh_edit_view_mode
+      %}
+        <p class="text-small mb-0">
+          <a href="{{ site.gh_edit_repository }}/{{ site.gh_edit_view_mode }}/{{ site.gh_edit_branch }}{% if site.gh_edit_source %}/{{ site.gh_edit_source }}{% endif %}{% if page.collection and site.collections_dir %}/{{ site.collections_dir }}{% endif %}/{{ page.path }}" id="edit-this-page">{{ site.gh_edit_link_text }}</a>
+        </p>
+      {% endif %}
+    </div>
+  {% endif %}
+
+  {%- comment -%}
+    note: nav_footer_custom and/or this "site footer" appear in components/sidebar.html for the desktop view.
+  {%- endcomment -%}
+
+  <div class="d-md-none mt-4 fs-2">
+    {% capture nav_footer_custom %}
+      {%- include nav_footer_custom.html -%}
+    {% endcapture %}
+    {% if nav_footer_custom != "" %}
+      {{ nav_footer_custom }}
+    {% else %}
+      This site uses <a href="https://github.com/just-the-docs/just-the-docs">Just the Docs</a>, a documentation theme for Jekyll.
+    {% endif %}
+  </div>
+</footer>
diff --git a/_plugins/git_metadata.rb b/_plugins/git_metadata.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..14f9862
--- /dev/null
+++ b/_plugins/git_metadata.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+Jekyll::Hooks.register [:pages, :documents], :post_init do |doc|
+  path = doc.path
+  
+  if path && File.exist?(path)
+    # Fetch git history for this specific file
+    # %ad: author date, %an: author name
+    git_log = `git log --follow --format="%ad|%an" --date=iso-strict -- "#{path}" 2>/dev/null`.strip
+    
+    unless git_log.empty?
+      logs = git_log.split("\n")
+      
+      # First commit (oldest) = creation date
+      first_commit = logs.last.split('|')
+      doc.data["created_at"] ||= first_commit.first
+      
+      # Last commit (newest) = last modified date
+      last_commit = logs.first.split('|')
+      doc.data["last_modified_date"] ||= last_commit.first
+      
+      # Current author (last modifying author)
+      doc.data["author"] ||= last_commit.last
+    end
+  end
+end