yard-timekeeper: Stop YARD Timestamp Churn in Checked-In Docs

The article announces the release of yard-timekeeper v0.1.0, a RubyGem designed to eliminate timestamp-only churn in generated YARD HTML documentation that is checked into git repositories. The tool works by comparing newly generated HTML files against their git-tracked versions, restoring the original file from git if the only change is the footer timestamp, while leaving files with actual content changes untouched. This helps reduce unnecessary diffs and noise in pull requests, making it easier to identify meaningful documentation updates.

🕰️ I just released yard-timekeeper v0.1.0, a small RubyGem for Ruby projects that check generated YARD HTML into git. It solves a very specific kind of documentation noise: timestamp-only churn. If your project publishes generated YARD documentation from a checked-in docs/ directory, you have probably seen this: That is not a documentation change. It is build noise. For projects that keep generated docs under version control, this creates unnecessary diffs, noisier pull requests, and extra review work. It also makes it harder to notice when documentation actually changed. yard-timekeeper Does yard-timekeeper runs after YARD generates HTML and checks tracked files under docs/ / .html . If a file's only change is the generated footer timestamp, it restores that file from git. If the page has real content changes, it leaves the file alone. The goal is not to hide documentation changes. The goal is to remove timestamp-only churn while preserving the signal that matters. gem install yard-timekeeper Or add it with Bundler: bundle add yard-timekeeper The supported workflow is through rake yard , so the post-process hook can run after YARD finishes. In your Rakefile or documentation task setup: require "yard/timekeeper" Yard::Timekeeper.install rake tasks :yard Then generate docs with: bin/rake yard No .yardopts plugin entry is required for this integration. If you were experimenting with --plugin timekeeper , remove it for this workflow and use the rake integration instead. yard-timekeeper is intentionally conservative: docs/ / .html .YARD TIMEKEEPER DISABLE=true .That means new documentation pages, deleted pages, and pages with real content edits remain visible to git. I maintain a lot of Ruby gems, and many of them publish YARD docs from checked-in HTML. I want documentation generation to be repeatable without filling commits with timestamp changes. Small tooling like this is not glamorous, but it improves the daily maintenance loop. Cleaner diffs mean easier review. Easier review means fewer mistakes. yard-timekeeper v0.1.0 is available now. 🕰️ May your docs be fresh, and your diffs quiet.