Github pages title includes "about" section of repo

[stelios-c]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Pages

Body

The Github pages title it includes the description included in the "about" section of the pages repo. This is creates an interesting situation: the about section is not actually under version control as far as I can tell, if I git clone locally I won't get it anywhere. Also, a change in the about section does not trigger the github action to build and deploy the page, some kind of change in the actual repo needs to be committed and pushed for the action to run.

[manavpatil-dev0]

That behavior makes sense technically, but it creates a strange source-of-truth problem.

The repository description lives in GitHub's repository metadata rather than the Git repository itself, so a local clone won't contain it. If the Pages build consumes that metadata, changing the About description can affect the generated title while not triggering a deployment on its own.

That means the deployed site can temporarily reflect stale metadata until another repository event triggers the Pages workflow.

I'd prefer either repository metadata changes to trigger a Pages rebuild when that metadata is consumed, or the title/description to be explicitly defined in version-controlled site configuration such as _config.yml or page front matter.

[pira73br]

You’re right: GitHub Pages can pull the site title from the repo About description, and that field is GitHub metadata (not in git). So it won’t come with a clone, and changing About often won’t redeploy Pages until another commit triggers a build.

Workaround that works today

Keep the canonical title in the repo:

Jekyll (_config.yml):
title: My Site Title
description: My site description

Static HTML:

<title>My Site Title</title>

Then treat About as optional, or clear it if you don’t want it overriding the title.

Product feedback

It would be better if GitHub either:

1. rebuilds Pages when About/description changes, or
2. prefers version-controlled config (_config.yml / <title>) over About when both exist, or
3. documents this behavior clearly.

Until then, put title/description in repo files so clones and deploys stay consistent.

If this helps, please mark as the accepted answer.

[HamiParsa]

Hi,

You're absolutely right on both points. Here's the short explanation:

1. The "About" section is NOT in version control

It's stored in GitHub's database, not in your repository files

When you clone the repo, you won't get it locally

It's metadata attached to the repo itself, not part of the code

2. Changing "About" does NOT trigger Pages rebuild

GitHub Pages builds are triggered by changes to the source branch (pushes to the branch)

Since the "About" section isn't in the repo, updating it doesn't count as a change to the source

No push → no rebuild

Workaround if you need to trigger a rebuild:

Push an empty commit to force a rebuild:

bash
git commit --allow-empty -m "Trigger Pages rebuild"
git push
Or use the GitHub API to manually trigger a Pages build:

bash
curl -X POST
-H "Authorization: token YOUR_TOKEN"
-H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json"
https://api.github.com/repos/OWNER/REPO/pages/builds
TL;DR: "About" is repo metadata (not in git), so changes to it don't trigger Pages builds. Use an empty commit to force a rebuild.

Hope that helps! 🙌