Chrono

chrono-mcp provides a robust MCP server for advanced date, time, timezone, and calendar operations powered by Luxon. It enables AI agents and applications to query and manipulate temporal data with precise formatting, timezone awareness, and flexible calculations.

How to use

You interact with chrono-mcp through an MCP client. Start the local server or connect to a remote MCP endpoint, then issue time-related queries and calculations. You can retrieve the current time, convert times between timezones, format results in multiple styles, and perform arithmetic like adding or subtracting durations. Outputs are designed to be compact and information-dense for efficient AI interactions.

How to install

Prerequisites you need before installing: Node.js version 22.0.0 or newer and npm or yarn for package management.

# Install dependencies and build the MCP server
npm install
npm run build

# Start the server as a local HTTP endpoint
npm run start:http

# Server listens on http://localhost:8000/mcp and health is available at /health

Configuration and usage notes

Two common ways to access chrono-mcp are via a local HTTP server or by running it as a local process that you interact with programmatically.

HTTP access: After starting, you can connect your MCP client to http://localhost:8000/mcp to perform time queries and calculations.

Local execution: You can run the MCP client via npx so clients can spawn the server as needed. For example, you can launch the package with npx @jmoak/chrono-mcp to initialize the MCP server in your workflow.

Notes on usage and features

Key capabilities include global timezone support with all IANA identifiers, time calculations (add, subtract, diff, duration between), multiple output formats (ISO, RFC2822, SQL, locale-aware, and custom formats), and type-safe responses through validation. Outputs can include timezone offsets, and you can request locale-specific formatting to suit different audiences.

For developers, the MCP interface is designed for seamless integration with AI agents and automation workflows, with token-efficient output shaping to maximize information density.

Troubleshooting

If the server does not start as expected, verify Node.js is installed and matches the required version, ensure dependencies are installed, and confirm that the start command is executed from the project root where the build artifacts are generated.

Security and maintenance tips

Run the HTTP server behind appropriate network security controls and monitor health endpoints to ensure uptime. Keep dependencies up to date and review timezone data updates to maintain accuracy across regions.

Available tools

get_time

Get the current time or convert times across timezones with flexible formatting.

time_calculator

Perform time arithmetic operations including add, subtract, diff, and duration_between.