#Page history

Each page can show its own history, like git log -p for one file. The history opens in a drawer over the page, so the reader stays where they were.

#Opening the history

By default, a line before the doc footer, at the end of each page, opens the history:

History of this page (4 changes, last on 2026-09-11)

Adding ?history to the URL of a page opens it as well, so a link can point to the history of a page. The drawer closes with its Close button, Escape, a click outside it, or the browser's Back button.

Pages without history, such as the recent changes page, show no line.

#What the history shows

The drawer lists the revisions of the page, newest first, the same way as the recent changes page.

• the date and time in the commit's own time zone, the subject, the short hash and, if enabled, the author,
• a "Show on page" link that closes the drawer and opens the page with ?diff=<hash>,
• the diff of its Markdown source, unified or side by side. Diffs load when they scroll into view, and diffs with more changed lines than maxDiffLines are collapsed.

The revisions that the recent changes page leaves out (see Changes left out) are left out here too, except the one that added the page. It is listed last, without a diff, so that a page that has not changed since shows when it was added.

The drawer lists up to maxPageRevisions revisions and says how many older ones are not listed. The limit applies only to the list; ranges can still use every revision.

#Where the entries go

pageHistory.entries chooses where the plugin places the entries that open the history.

pluginGitDiff({
  pageHistory: { entries: ['footer', 'nav'] },
});

• 'footer' (default): the line before the doc footer.
• 'nav': a button with a clock icon in the navigation bar, before the language and theme switches.
• []: no entries; only a URL with ?history opens the history.

Set pageHistory: false to turn the history off.

#Placing the entries in a theme

A plugin cannot fill the slots of the Rspress layout, so the plugin inserts its entries into the rendered page. This relies on the structure of the default theme. A site with a custom theme can place the entries itself with the components the plugin exports:

• PageHistoryLink: the line that the 'footer' entry places.
• PageHistoryButton: the button that the 'nav' entry places.

import { PageHistoryButton, PageHistoryLink } from '@kazamori/rspress-plugin-git-diff/runtime';
import { Layout as BasicLayout } from '@rspress/core/theme-original';

function Layout() {
  return <BasicLayout afterNavMenu={<PageHistoryButton />} beforeDocFooter={<PageHistoryLink />} />;
}

export { Layout };
export * from '@rspress/core/theme-original';

If the theme already overrides Layout, for example to add a banner, pass the components to the same BasicLayout together with the other props. Set pageHistory: { entries: [] } so that the plugin does not place the same entries again. The drawer itself still comes from the plugin; the components only open it.

#Cost

Every page fetches its index from git-diff-data/pages/ to show the entry, a small JSON file that the build already writes for the on-page diff. On a page without history, the request returns 404, and the browser may log it in the console.