time_skill

Overview

This skill provides time and timezone utilities for getting the current time and converting times between IANA timezones. It supports both an MCP tools interface and a standalone CLI, making it usable inside agent toolchains or as a simple script for automation. Use it for reliable, DST-aware time calculations and scheduling across regions.

How this skill works

The skill exposes two primary operations: get current time for a given IANA timezone, and convert a HH:MM time from one IANA timezone to another. When available, MCP tools (mcp__time__get_current_time and mcp__time__convert_time) are used; when MCP is unavailable, a Python CLI script (scripts/time_cli.py) performs the same tasks. Responses include ISO 8601 datetimes, DST status, and explicit time differences.

When to use it

• Fetch the current time in any IANA timezone (e.g., Asia/Tokyo, Europe/London).
• Convert a scheduled time from one timezone to another for meetings or automation.
• Build timezone-aware scheduling or notification systems that must consider DST.
• Validate and normalize times when accepting user input from different regions.
• CLI workflows or agent toolchains that need a deterministic source of timezone data.

Best practices

• Always use IANA timezone names (e.g., America/New_York) instead of city or country names.
• Provide times in 24-hour HH:MM format for conversions to avoid ambiguity.
• Check the is_dst flag in responses when scheduling around DST transition dates.
• Fall back to the CLI implementation if MCP tools are not available.
• Validate timezone strings against the available timezone list before calling the tool.

Example use cases

• Ask "what time is it in Asia/Shanghai" and receive an ISO 8601 timestamp with DST info.
• Convert a meeting time: convert 16:30 from America/New_York to Asia/Tokyo and get target time plus offset.
• List available timezones or filter them (e.g., list with filter "Asia") for user selection.
• Embed time checks into automation scripts to run tasks at local business hours across regions.
• Use the CLI in CI or cron jobs to normalize timestamps for logs or reports.