Datetime

You run a specialized MCP server that provides current date and time information with robust timezone support. It’s built to give you accurate, ISO-formatted datetimes in any IANA timezone, with sensible defaults and fallbacks so you always get a meaningful result.

How to use

Use the datetime MCP server from your MCP client to request the current date and time. You can call it with or without a specific timezone. If you provide a timezone, you’ll get the time in that zone. If you don’t, the server will use its default timezone, or fall back to UTC if none is configured.

When you want the time in a particular city or region, specify an IANA timezone string such as Asia/Tokyo, Europe/London, or America/New_York. The response will include the current date and time with timezone information, formatted in an ISO-compatible style.

How to install

Prerequisites: you need Node.js and npm installed on your system.

Install the datetime MCP package globally so you can run it from any project.

npm install -g @pinkpixel/datetime-mcp

Configure your MCP client to load the server. The basic configuration runs with UTC by default.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "datetime": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@pinkpixel/datetime-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

If you want a specific default timezone, set TZ in the environment for the MCP client.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "datetime": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@pinkpixel/datetime-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "TZ": "America/New_York"
      }
    }
  }
}

For local development in a cloned repository, follow these steps to build and run the server, then point your MCP client to the local build.

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/pinkpixel/datetime-mcp.git
cd datetime-mcp

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the server
npm run build

Then configure your MCP client to load the local build. Use the absolute path to the built index file.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "datetime-local": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/datetime-mcp/build/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

If you want to run with a specific timezone for local development, add TZ to the environment.

## Additional notes

Timezone configuration examples show common identifiers such as America/New\_York, Europe/London, Asia/Tokyo, and UTC. You can set TZ to any valid IANA timezone string to influence the default behavior of the server.

When you query the time without a timezone parameter, the server uses the configured defaults and falls back to UTC if none is configured. This ensures you always receive a properly formatted datetime with timezone information.

## Available tools

### get\_current\_datetime

Returns the current date and time with full timezone support, accepting an optional IANA timezone, validating identifiers, and producing an ISO-compatible string with timezone information.