How to Use Git Hooks to Auto-Set Post Dates

The frontmatter of astro-minimax blog posts includes pubDatetime (publication date) and modDatetime (modification date) fields. Manually maintaining these dates is tedious and easy to forget. This article explains how to handle this automatically with Git hooks.

Important Note

The hook only auto-fills empty date fields. It will NOT overwrite values you’ve manually specified.

If you’ve already set pubDatetime or modDatetime in your frontmatter, the hook preserves your values.

Option 1: One-Click Install via CLI (Recommended)

The astro-minimax CLI provides a hooks command that automatically installs Husky and configures the pre-commit hook:

# Run from anywhere in your blog project (supports subdirectories)
astro-minimax hooks install

This will:

1. Detect project type (single project / Monorepo)
2. Install Husky as a dev dependency
3. Create .husky/pre-commit hook script
4. Configure the prepare script

After installation, every git commit will auto-fill empty date fields:

Other commands:

astro-minimax hooks status     # Show current status
astro-minimax hooks uninstall  # Remove hooks

Option 2: Manual Configuration

If you prefer to configure it yourself, follow these steps.

Step 1: Install Husky

Husky is a Git hook management tool:

pnpm add -D husky
npx husky init

Step 2: Create the pre-commit Hook

Edit .husky/pre-commit:

#!/usr/bin/env sh
. "$(dirname -- "$0")/_/husky.sh"

# Only auto-fill empty date fields, never overwrite existing values

git diff --cached --name-status | while read -r status file; do
  case "$file" in
    src/data/blog/*.md|src/data/blog/**/*.md)
      case "$status" in
        M)
          filecontent=$(cat "$file" 2>/dev/null) || continue
          frontmatter=$(echo "$filecontent" | awk -v RS='---' 'NR==2{print}')
          draft=$(echo "$frontmatter" | awk '/^draft: /{print $2}')
          
          if [ "$draft" = "false" ]; then
            modDatetime=$(echo "$frontmatter" | awk '/^modDatetime: /{print $2}')
            if [ -z "$modDatetime" ] || [ "$modDatetime" = "" ]; then
              echo "Auto-filled modDatetime: $file"
              sed -i.bak "/---.*/,/---.*/s/^modDatetime:.*$/modDatetime: $(date -u "+%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")/" "$file" && rm -f "$file.bak"
              git add "$file"
            fi
          fi
          
          if [ "$draft" = "first" ]; then
            echo "First release: $file"
            sed -i.bak -e "/---.*/,/---.*/s/^modDatetime:.*$/modDatetime:/" -e "/---.*/,/---.*/s/^draft:.*$/draft: false/" "$file" && rm -f "$file.bak"
            git add "$file"
          fi
          ;;
        A)
          filecontent=$(cat "$file" 2>/dev/null) || continue
          frontmatter=$(echo "$filecontent" | awk -v RS='---' 'NR==2{print}')
          pubDatetime=$(echo "$frontmatter" | awk '/^pubDatetime: /{print $2}')
          
          if [ -z "$pubDatetime" ] || [ "$pubDatetime" = "" ]; then
            echo "Auto-filled pubDatetime: $file"
            sed -i.bak "/---.*/,/---.*/s/^pubDatetime:.*$/pubDatetime: $(date -u "+%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")/" "$file" && rm -f "$file.bak"
            git add "$file"
          fi
          ;;
      esac
      ;;
  esac
done

Hook Logic Explained

New files (A):

1. Check if pubDatetime is empty
2. If empty, fill with current time; if has value, skip

Modified files (M):

1. Check draft status
2. If draft: false: check if modDatetime is empty, fill if empty
3. If draft: first: change to draft: false, clear modDatetime

First Publish Workflow

Use draft: first for automated first-time publishing:

---
title: "New Post"
pubDatetime:           # Leave empty, hook will auto-fill
modDatetime:           # Leave empty
draft: first           # First publish marker
---

On commit, the hook will:

1. Auto-fill pubDatetime
2. Change draft to false
3. Future modifications will auto-update modDatetime

Notes

1. Git hooks are local only — Team members need to run astro-minimax hooks install individually
2. Files must be staged first — The hook runs on git commit and processes git added files
3. Monorepo support — CLI automatically detects git root and installs hooks in the correct location
4. Manually specified dates are preserved — The hook only fills empty values

Related Links

• Husky Documentation
• Git Hooks Documentation