hugo --clock

I use hugo as my SSG.

hugo has a --clock flag that lets you set the clock (using a starting RFC 3339 formatted timestamp) that the CLI uses for its commands. For example, I can run:

$ hugo server --clock 2026-07-01T12:00:00-04:00
...
 Pages            │ 71
...
Change detected, rebuilding site (#1).
2026-07-01 12:00:49.515 -0400

To start the server with the clock at noon on July 1st, 2026, EDT.

However! Using this flag will exclude posts that are dated after that timestamp, so you’ll want to add --buildFuture to avoid this:

$ hugo server --clock 2026-07-01T12:00:00-04:00 --buildFuture
...
 Pages            │ 74
...
Change detected, rebuilding site (#1).
2026-07-01 12:00:49.515 -0400

I’m currently using this to test out the various “seasons” on my site, and for testing the monthly rotating emojis on my homepage.