clawdbot/docs/date-time.md

summary, read_when

summary	read_when
Date and time handling across envelopes, prompts, tools, and connectors	You are changing how timestamps are shown to the model or users You are debugging time formatting in messages or system prompt output

Date & Time

Clawdbot defaults to UTC for transport timestamps and user-local time only in the system prompt. Provider timestamps are preserved so tools keep their native semantics.

Message envelopes (UTC by default)

Inbound messages are wrapped with a UTC timestamp (minute precision):

[Provider ... 2026-01-05T21:26Z] message text

This envelope timestamp is UTC by default, regardless of the host timezone.

You can override this behavior:

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      envelopeTimezone: "utc", // "utc" | "local" | "user" | IANA timezone
      envelopeTimestamp: "on", // "on" | "off"
      envelopeElapsed: "on" // "on" | "off"
    }
  }
}

• envelopeTimezone: "local" uses the host timezone.
• envelopeTimezone: "user" uses agents.defaults.userTimezone (falls back to host timezone).
• Use an explicit IANA timezone (e.g., "America/Chicago") for a fixed zone.
• envelopeTimestamp: "off" removes absolute timestamps from envelope headers.
• envelopeElapsed: "off" removes elapsed time suffixes (the +2m style).

Examples

UTC (default):

[WhatsApp +1555 2026-01-18T05:19Z] hello

User timezone:

[WhatsApp +1555 2026-01-18 00:19 CST] hello

Elapsed time enabled:

[WhatsApp +1555 +30s 2026-01-18T05:19Z] follow-up

System prompt: Current Date & Time

If the user timezone or local time is known, the system prompt includes a dedicated Current Date & Time section:

Thursday, January 15th, 2026 — 3:07 PM (America/Chicago)
Time format: 12-hour

If only the timezone is known, we still include the section and instruct the model to assume UTC for unknown time references.

System event lines (UTC)

Queued system events inserted into agent context are prefixed with a UTC timestamp:

System: [2026-01-12T20:19:17Z] Model switched.

Configure user timezone + format

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      userTimezone: "America/Chicago",
      timeFormat: "auto" // auto | 12 | 24
    }
  }
}

• userTimezone sets the user-local timezone for prompt context.
• timeFormat controls 12h/24h display in the prompt. auto follows OS prefs.

Time format detection (auto)

When timeFormat: "auto", Clawdbot inspects the OS preference (macOS/Windows) and falls back to locale formatting. The detected value is cached per process to avoid repeated system calls.

Tool payloads + connectors (raw provider time + normalized fields)

Channel tools return provider-native timestamps and add normalized fields for consistency:

• timestampMs: epoch milliseconds (UTC)
• timestampUtc: ISO 8601 UTC string

Raw provider fields are preserved so nothing is lost.

• Slack: epoch-like strings from the API
• Discord: UTC ISO timestamps
• Telegram/WhatsApp: provider-specific numeric/ISO timestamps

If you need local time, convert it downstream using the known timezone.

Related docs

• System Prompt
• Timezones
• Messages