GitHub Date Editor

A powerful CLI tool to create and modify Git commits with custom dates. Perfect for backfilling your GitHub contribution graph or correcting commit timestamps.

This tool is intended for correcting Git metadata such as commits created
with incorrect system clocks, imported repositories, or historical work.

It should not be used to fabricate contribution activity.

Features

• Create empty commits with custom dates
• Amend existing commits with new timestamps
• Interactive prompts or command-line arguments
• Flexible date input (full datetime, date only, or time only)
• Future date validation
• Cross-platform support (macOS, Linux, Windows)

Installation

One-time use (recommended)

npx github-date-editor

Global installation

npm install -g github-date-editor

Usage

Interactive Mode

Simply run the command without arguments to enter interactive mode:

github-date-editor

You'll be prompted to:

1. Choose input type (date+time, date only, or time only)
2. Enter the date/time
3. Select action (create empty commit or amend last commit)
4. Enter commit message (optional for amend)

CLI Mode

Pass arguments directly for automation or scripting:

# Create empty commit with custom date
github-date-editor --date "2024-12-25 10:00:00" --message "Holiday commit"

# Amend last commit with new date (keeps original message)
github-date-editor --date "2024-12-25" --amend

# Using short flags
github-date-editor -d "10:30:00" -m "Morning work"

# Amend with new message
github-date-editor -d "2023-01-01 00:00:00" --amend -m "New year commit"

Arguments

Argument	Short	Type	Description
--date	-d	string	Date/time in format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS, YYYY-MM-DD, or HH:MM:SS
--message	-m	string	Commit message (required for new commits)
--action	-a	string	Action type: allow-empty or amend
--amend		boolean	Shortcut for --action amend

Date Format Examples

• Full date and time: 2024-12-25 10:30:00
• Date only (current time used): 2024-12-25
• Time only (current date used): 10:30:00 or 10:30

Note: Future dates are not allowed. The tool validates that all timestamps are in the past.

Use Cases

Backfill GitHub Contributions

Create commits for past dates to fill your contribution graph:

github-date-editor -d "2024-01-15 09:00:00" -m "Initial project setup"
github-date-editor -d "2024-01-16 14:30:00" -m "Add core features"
github-date-editor -d "2024-01-17 11:00:00" -m "Documentation update"

Fix Commit Timestamps

Amend the last commit to correct its date:

# Keep original message, just change date
github-date-editor -d "2024-06-15 16:45:00" --amend

# Change both date and message
github-date-editor -d "2024-06-15" --amend -m "Corrected commit"

Automated Scripts

Use in shell scripts for batch operations:

#!/bin/bash
dates=("2024-01-01" "2024-01-08" "2024-01-15")
for date in "${dates[@]}"; do
  github-date-editor -d "$date 10:00:00" -m "Weekly update"
done

How It Works

The tool uses Git's GIT_AUTHOR_DATE and GIT_COMMITTER_DATE environment variables to set custom timestamps. This approach:

• Works across all platforms (macOS, Linux, Windows)
• Modifies both author and committer dates
• Uses --allow-empty flag to create commits without file changes
• Applies --reset-author on amend to update author information

Requirements

• Node.js 16+
• Git installed and configured
• A Git repository (initialized with git init)

License

ISC

Author

Built with TypeScript, Inquirer.js, and Node.js native modules.