The docmd 0.7.9 release introduces Incremental Rebuilds for near-instant development, the OpenAPI plugin, and major performance optimizations via a Parallel Plugin Architecture. It also resolves critical config file leakage, fixes monorepo git history accuracy, adds contributor avatars, and implements a smart sticky footer.

✨ Highlights

OpenAPI Plugin

The new OpenAPI plugin renders API reference documentation directly from OpenAPI 3.x spec files inside Markdown pages - at build time, with no client-side JavaScript and no third-party UI libraries (no Swagger UI, no Redoc).

Add a spec embed anywhere in your Markdown:

```openapi
./api/openapi.json
```

The plugin reads the spec at build time and outputs static HTML: colour-coded method badges, parameter tables, request/response schema tables, and status code descriptions. It supports both JSON and YAML specs, resolves internal $ref references, and handles oneOf/anyOf union types.

New in 0.7.9: Added a download: true option to provide direct links to the raw spec file in the UI - perfect for AI models (like GPT-4 or Claude) to consume your API documentation programmatically.

docmd add openapi

See the OpenAPI plugin documentation for full details.

Incremental Rebuilds (Instant Dev Mode)

The development server now features a Targeted Rebuild system. Previously, editing a single Markdown file triggered a full site rebuild. For sites with hundreds of pages, this could take 10+ seconds.

In 0.7.9, docmd dev only re-renders the specific file you modified. Page reloads are now instant (<1s), even for massive projects. The system correctly maintains all navigation, versioning, and asset context during these partial updates.

Parallel Plugin Architecture (Multi-Threaded Performance)

The build engine has been overhauled to support parallel plugin execution. Previously, plugin hooks like onBeforeRender ran sequentially for every page. For plugins that perform I/O or spawn child processes (like the Git plugin), this was a significant bottleneck.

In 0.7.9, the engine now processes page rendering in concurrent batches. Combined with the new Asynchronous Git Plugin, which uses non-blocking execFile calls, build times for large sites with hundreds of pages are up to 3x faster.

Key improvements:

• Batched Rendering: Phase 3 of the generator now runs in parallel batches of 64 pages.
• Async Hooks: All plugin hooks can now be async, and the engine correctly awaits them in parallel.
• Git Plugin Overhaul: Replaced synchronous execSync with asynchronous, non-blocking process spawning.

📝 Complete Changelog

Bug Fixes

• Git Plugin - Per-file commit history in multi-project builds: Module-level singleton state (_gitRootPath) was set once from whichever project docmd processed first, and reused for all subsequent projects. This caused pages in project 2+ to query git history against the wrong repository root, returning empty or mismatched results. The fix resolves the git root per file directory using a per-directory cache, so each file always queries its own repository context - safe for monorepos and multi-project setups.

• Git Plugin - SPA hydration: The git widget was re-hydrating timestamps on docmd.afterReload() (dev-server only). In SPA mode, navigating between pages left timestamps un-formatted. Fixed to listen on docmd:page-mounted instead, which fires after every SPA page swap.

Features

• OpenAPI Plugin (@docmd/plugin-openapi): Build-time OpenAPI 3.x spec renderer. Outputs static HTML endpoint docs from JSON or YAML spec files. No client-side dependencies.

• Plugin API - onBeforeRender hook: New lifecycle hook called before template rendering. Receives full PageContext including sourcePath. Mutations to frontmatter and html are reflected in the rendered output.

• Plugin API - PageContext type: Formally typed and exported from @docmd/api. Includes sourcePath, frontmatter, html, localeId, versionId, and relativePathToRoot.

• Git Plugin - Contributor Avatars: Commit history tooltip now shows Gravatar images (MD5-hashed email, ?d=mp fallback) instead of initials.

• Git Plugin - Configurable Date Formats: New dateFormat option: relative (default), iso, or locale-aware.

  plugins: { git: { dateFormat: 'locale-aware' } }
  

• Parallel Build Pipeline: The generator now parallelises the template rendering phase. Plugins can now perform expensive operations (like Git calls or OpenAPI parsing) concurrently across multiple CPU cores via child processes.

• Asynchronous Git Plugin: The Git plugin is now fully asynchronous. It uses non-blocking child processes and path normalization to ensure high performance and accuracy even in complex monorepo structures.

• Incremental Rebuild System: The dev server now performs targeted partial builds. Editing a file re-renders only that file, reducing reload times from 10s+ to under 300ms for large sites.

• OpenAPI Plugin - Download Spec: New download option provides a link to the raw JSON/YAML spec in the page header for AI accessibility.

• UI - Smart Sticky Footer: Footer is now always pinned to the bottom of the viewport using flex layout, even on pages with minimal content. (Fixed).

Internal

• Edit Link Path Resolution: Computed from the git repository root, not config.src or process.cwd(). Correct in all project layouts.

• Config Loader - Hardening: Implemented mandatory cleanup for orphaned temporary config files (docmd.config-*.js) and added try-finally safety to prevent leakage during syntax errors.