@deepseek-ai/dsh-time-context

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Opt-in durable context with the current zoned time, the browser zone attached to the open request, and elapsed time sampled during model-request preparation. Default compositions leave it disabled; the Schedule Web overlay mounts it so the model can interpret otherwise-unqualified dates and times in the user's browser zone. Decision record: the durable time-context Agent Note.

Config

- id: time-context
  name: '@deepseek-ai/dsh-time-context'
  config:
    timeZone: Asia/Shanghai  # optional fallback when the request has no unique browser zone
    refreshIntervalMs: 60000 # optional; omit or set to 0 for every eligible attempt

When the open turn contains one Host-validated browser zone, that request-local zone formats the timestamp. With missing or mixed browser provenance, timeZone supplies the display fallback; omitting it resolves the Node process zone once at plugin load. Node honors TZ, and every explicit fallback is validated through Intl.DateTimeFormat.

refreshIntervalMs must be a non-negative safe integer. Omission or 0 adds context to every eligible entering pre-step whose signal is not already aborted. A positive value adds it only when the Session has no earlier time-context injection, wall time moved backward, or at least that many milliseconds elapsed since the latest injection.

Request-zone ownership

The browser samples Intl.DateTimeFormat().resolvedOptions().timeZone for each prompt. The Host validates and canonicalizes that value before binding it to the exact durable user-rpc message source. Time-context examines only those sources in the open turn: one unique zone resolves the request, multiple zones are mixed, and none are unavailable. It does not read or mutate Session headers, connection state, or Schedule records.

The resolved instruction tells the model to interpret otherwise-unqualified dates and times in that browser zone. Mixed or unavailable provenance tells the model to ask the user to clarify. This is natural-language context, not an input default at another package boundary: a tool that accepts local calendar fields still owns its explicit zone requirement.

Timing semantics

The plugin prepends an agent/pre-step listener and delegates first. When an injection is due and the downstream decision enters, it appends one sourced UserMessage to the returned batch. AgentLoop records the final batch after step/start and before request derivation. Rejection, listener failure, or an already-aborted signal records nothing.

Each reading uses the exact snapshot source { kind: 'plugin', plugin: 'time-context', form: 'snapshot', sections: [{ name: 'time-context', text: <same text> }] }. The ./invariant companion validates that shape, re-derives the current-turn browser policy from the original user-rpc messages, and checks the timestamp zone and elapsed baseline.

Positive-interval scheduling scans raw durable Session events for the latest plugin-attributed message, including a reading shadowed by compaction. It therefore survives resume without a process-local cache. A positive interval can intentionally let a later request reuse existing history without a fresh reading; the Schedule Web overlay omits the interval.

Step 1 measures from the latest preceding durable user, assistant, or tool-result message. The prompt proposed for that step has not been appended yet. Later steps measure from the preceding time-context event in the same turn. Missing baselines report unavailable, and backward wall-clock movement clamps elapsed time to zero.

A reading records an entered step, not a completed or transmitted request. A later preparation failure can leave it in history. The message remains in derived conversation history until compaction shadows it; request/header contains no time-context state, and request reconstruction uses the complete durable surface prefix after each step/start.

Model Experience

Preparation-time temporal context

What the model sees

Each injected message contains three lines. <timestamp> is an ISO-shaped timestamp with numeric offset and IANA zone; durations use compact whole-second units.

First step

Time sampled while preparing turn <turn>, step 1: <timestamp>
Browser time zone for this request: <iana-zone-or-mixed-or-unavailable-policy>.
Elapsed since the preceding model-visible message: <duration-or-unavailable>.

Later steps

Time sampled while preparing turn <turn>, step <step>: <timestamp>
Browser time zone for this request: <iana-zone-or-mixed-or-unavailable-policy>.
Elapsed since the preceding step context: <duration-or-unavailable>.

Token effect

Each reading accumulates until compaction shadows it. A positive interval reduces additions; omission or 0 adds one at every eligible preparation attempt.

KV Cache effect

Append-only; newly visible content follows the reusable request prefix and does not invalidate existing KV-cache entries.

Known Limitations and Deferred Work

• Prompt provenance only — browser-zone context guides natural-language interpretation but does not silently supply another tool's required zone field.
• Mixed turns ask — if one open turn contains prompts from different browser zones, the model is told to clarify rather than guess which one owns an unqualified time.
• Fallback is not user authority — the configured or process zone formats the clock when browser provenance is missing or mixed, but the model-facing policy still says to clarify.
• Whole-second display — timestamps and durations omit sub-second precision even though durable event times retain milliseconds.
• History cost between compactions — omission or 0 retains one reading for every eligible attempt; a positive interval reduces but does not eliminate this cost and may leave a later request without fresh browser-zone guidance.