Progressive build

[Pandapip1]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

The large website I'm using vitepress for takes a long time to build.

Describe the solution you'd like

A progressive build option, where vitepress only renders markdown files that have changed since the last build. Figuring out which files have changed or need re-rendering is left as an exercise to the implementer :)

Describe alternatives you've considered

No response

Additional context

No response

Validations

• [X] Follow our Code of Conduct
• [X] Read the docs.
• [X] Read the Contributing Guidelines.
• [X] Check that there isn't already an issue that asks for the same feature to avoid creating a duplicate.

[yyx990803]

This is technically challenging due to the way the app is built right now. I've tried to come up with simple solutions but proved too brittle. Definitely something I intend to explore in the long run, but it could require significant change in how the app is built.

[Pandapip1]

Would it be possible to integrate with git and store the commit that the website was last built at?

[KnorpelSenf]

Another way to speed this up is to

• somehow make building an individual page faster, or to
• implement #3183

which doesn't require caching and diff'ing.