Last Updated

Last updated shows the most recent content update time on documentation pages.

This is a build-time feature configured by server.lastEdit in vp/config/runtime.ts. During build, vanilla-press checks whether the page Markdown content has changed and writes the display time into the layout container.

Configuration

server.lastEdit is enabled by default.

TypeScript
export default {  server: {    lastEdit: true,  },}

• false disables last updated.
• true uses the default config:

TypeScript
export default {  server: {    lastEdit: {      text: 'editor.lastUpdated',      format: 'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss',      utc: true,    },  },}

text

text controls the label text.

The default value is editor.lastUpdated, which is resolved through the current locale in vp/config/languages.ts.

TypeScript
export default {  server: {    lastEdit: {      text: 'editor.lastUpdated',    },  },}

Default multilingual config:

TypeScript
export default {  'zh-CN': {    editor: {      lastUpdated: '最后更新于:',    },  },  en: {    editor: {      lastUpdated: 'Last updated:',    },  },}

Date/Time Format

format controls how the time is displayed. The default value is:

TypeScript
'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss'

vanilla-press uses date-fns format() for date/time formatting. The value is formatted in the local timezone of the server environment.

TypeScript
export default {  server: {    lastEdit: {      format: 'yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm',    },  },}

Common tokens:

Common format examples:

Note that date-fns recommends yyyy for the calendar year and dd for the day of month. Do not reuse old-style YYYY and DD tokens, or you may get a different meaning or a formatting error.

If the provided format cannot be parsed by date-fns, vanilla-press falls back to the default format yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.

UTC Marker

utc controls whether the current server timezone label is appended after the time.

When utc: true, the output becomes:

Markdown
Last updated: 2026-08-19 23:57:03 UTC+8

Notes:

• The time is not converted to UTC.
• vanilla-press appends the timezone label of the server environment, such as UTC+8 or UTC-5.
• If your custom format already includes timezone information, set utc: false to avoid duplicate output.

TypeScript
export default {  server: {    lastEdit: {      utc: false,    },  },}

Cache Rules

Last updated depends on this cache file:

Markdown
vp/cache/.last-edit.json

Build rules:

• Each page computes an identity from the Markdown source content.
• If the page is built for the first time, or the Markdown content changes, the current server time is written.
• If the Markdown content does not change, the cached time is reused.
• Changing runtime config, layout templates, or styles does not refresh a page’s last updated time.
• To force a refresh, change the Markdown source or delete vp/cache/.last-edit.json and rebuild.

The cache file is local server state and should not be committed. The scaffold ignores vp/cache through .gitignore by default.

Output

When enabled, HTML is generated and emitted.