mkdocs-git-authors-plugin

What it is and what it does

This is a lightweight MkDocs plugin that integrates git history into your documentation by showing which authors last modified the current lines of a markdown page. It uses git blame to identify surviving code—the lines that remain in the file—and displays the authors responsible for them. You add it to your MkDocs configuration, then use the {{ git_page_authors }} template tag or customize your theme to show author attribution.

The plugin requires access to full git history to work correctly, which matters in CI/CD environments where shallow clones are common. The fact sheet notes that GitHub Actions, GitLab, and Bitbucket pipelines need specific configuration to fetch the full history (fetch_depth: 0, GIT_DEPTH: 0, or clone: depth: full respectively). It supports Python 3.8 through 3.13 and carries no known security vulnerabilities.

Use it for:

• Add author attribution to documentation pages to track who last modified each section
• Generate contributor lists for collaborative documentation projects without manual maintenance
• Display authorship in CI/CD-built documentation sites by configuring shallow clone depth
• Customize MkDocs themes to show git authors alongside revision dates using companion plugins

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

A MkDocs plugin that extracts and displays the git authors of the current lines in a markdown page using git blame, showing who last modified the surviving code.

Yes, if you use MkDocs and want automatic author attribution from git history. The plugin is lightweight, permissively licensed, and carries no security vulnerabilities. The aging maintenance status (430 days since release) is a minor concern but the repository remains active and supports current Python versions. Ensure your build environment is configured to fetch full git history, or author data will be incomplete.

Install

mkdocs-git-authors-plugin on PyPI

pip install mkdocs-git-authors-plugin

uv add mkdocs-git-authors-plugin

poetry add mkdocs-git-authors-plugin

Installing mkdocs-git-authors-plugin

Before you install

Low friction installation as a pure Python wheel with a single runtime dependency on mkdocs. The project is aging (430 days since last release) but remains actively maintained with recent commits and no archived status.

License in practice

MIT license permits unrestricted use, modification, and distribution with minimal obligations—suitable for both open-source and commercial projects.

Quickstart

pip install mkdocs-git-authors-plugin

# In mkdocs.yml:
plugins:
  - search
  - git-authors

# In markdown:
{{ git_page_authors }}

Requires full git history access; shallow clones in CI/CD will return incomplete author data unless fetch_depth/GIT_DEPTH is set to 0.

Verify before relying

• Whether the plugin correctly handles files with no git history or newly added files
• Performance impact on documentation builds with many pages or large git histories
• Compatibility with MkDocs theme customization beyond the documented {{ git_page_authors }} tag

Package facts

Evidence: mkdocs_git_authors_plugin-0.10.0-py3-none-any.whl

Keywords: mkdocs, git, contributors, committers, authors, plugin

Tags

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