Relative Time Formatting for AI Agents

Overview

Relative Time Formatter works by calculating the time difference between dates and expressing it in the most appropriate unit (seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years) with customizable formatting styles.

Live Test Relative Time Formatting for AI Agents Source →

The tool

Once your client is connected to the VerveContext server, this appears in its tool list as RelativeTimeFormattingforAIAgents. It is read-only and open-world — it fetches and never mutates anything on your side — so most clients call it without asking you to confirm.

Tool call

{
  "name": "RelativeTimeFormattingforAIAgents",
  "arguments": {
    "timestamp": "1609459200"
  }
}

You do not name the tool yourself; the model picks it. Asking about 1609459200 in the terms this source covers is enough for it to reach for RelativeTimeFormattingforAIAgents on its own — naming it explicitly also works, and is the way to force the call.

Connecting

One server URL covers every source in the catalog, including this one. Authorization is OAuth: the client opens a browser once, and there is no key to paste into a config file.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vervecontext": {
      "url": "https://api.vervecontext.com/v1/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Per-client setup — Claude, Cursor, VS Code, ChatGPT — is on the MCP setup page.

Arguments

These are the properties on the tool's inputSchema, so a well-behaved client validates them before the call is made. Premium arguments are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them.

Argument	Type	Description
`timestamp`Required	string	Unix timestamp in seconds or milliseconds timestamp
`reference`Optional	string	Reference time to compare against (default: current time) date
`style`Optional	string	Output style `shortlongabbreviated` default short

What the model gets back

The result carries a structuredContent object matching the tool's declared outputSchema, so a client reads fields without parsing prose. status is "ok" and error is null on success; a null field means the value was not available for that input, not that the call failed.

Result

{
  "status": "ok",
  "error": null,
  "data": {
    "target_date": "2021-01-01T00:00:00Z",
    "reference_date": "2025-12-16T22:28:24.459Z",
    "relative_time": "4 years ago",
    "is_past": true,
    "is_future": false,
    "difference_ms": -156464904459,
    "primary_unit": "year",
    "primary_value": 4,
    "all_units": {
      "years": 4,
      "months": 59,
      "weeks": 258,
      "days": 1810,
      "hours": 43462,
      "minutes": 2607748,
      "seconds": 156464904,
      "milliseconds": 156464904459
    },
    "style": "short"
  }
}

Response fields

Paths are relative to data. Premium fields are absent rather than zeroed on plans that do not include them, so check for presence instead of comparing to 0.

Field	Type	Example	Description
`target_date`	string	`2021-01-01T00:00:00Z`	The date being described
`reference_date`	string	`2025-12-16T22:28:24.459Z`	The date it is described relative to
`relative_time`	string	`4 years ago`	Relative time formatted string (e.g., '2 hours ago')
`is_past`	boolean	`true`	Whether the target date falls before the reference date
`is_future`	boolean	`false`	Whether the target date falls after the reference date
`difference_ms`	number	`-156464904459`	Gap between the two dates in milliseconds
`primary_unit`	string	`year`	Primary time unit used in formatting
`primary_value`	number	`4`	Numeric value of the time unit
`all_units`	object	`{…}`	The same gap expressed in every unit
`all_units.years`	number	`4`	Gap in years
`all_units.months`	number	`59`	Gap in months
`all_units.weeks`	number	`258`	Gap in weeks
`all_units.days`	number	`1810`	Gap in days
`all_units.hours`	number	`43462`	Gap in hours
`all_units.minutes`	number	`2607748`	Gap in minutes
`all_units.seconds`	number	`156464904`	Gap in seconds
`all_units.milliseconds`	number	`156464904459`	Gap in milliseconds
`style`	string	`short`	The formatting style applied to relative_time - short, long or abbreviated

Why ground on it

A model can produce something that looks like this answer from its training data, and be confidently out of date or simply wrong. This source returns the current value in a shape you can check, which is the difference between an answer you can cite and one you have to hedge.

Point an evaluation at target_date: it is the field most worth pinning a claim to, and it is either present and current or absent — never plausibly invented.

Failure modes

Errors come back as tool errors carrying a sentence the model can act on, not a bare status code. Error handling covers the full list.

Status	What it means
`400` / `422`	The arguments did not validate. The message names the offending one.
`401`	The OAuth session is invalid or expired — reconnect the server.
`403`	Blocked by a key restriction or an IP allow-list. Never a bad identity.
`404`	This source is not part of VerveContext. Check the catalog.
`429`	Out of credits, or a brief rate limit. The message tells them apart.

A call costs 2 credits each time the tool actually runs; a model that reasons about the tool without calling it costs nothing.

Use cases

Social Media: Display post timestamps as relative times like '5 minutes ago' in feeds and timelines
Activity Logs: Show user activity and system events with human-readable time references
Notifications: Format notification timestamps for better user comprehension and engagement
Analytics: Present time-based data and metrics in accessible relative time formats

Other ways to use Relative Time Formatting for AI Agents

Set up Relative Time Formatting for AI Agents on VerveContext, or reach the same source a different way. Your VerveContext account and credits work on all of them — one key, one balance.

Call it as a REST APIOne HTTPS endpoint and an x-api-key header, with SDKs for Node, Python and .NET.APIVerve →Reference →

Give it to an AI agentConnect over MCP and your agent calls it as a native tool — Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT.VerveKit →Reference →

Google Sheets or ExcelA =VERVE() formula fills a column — no script, no export, recalculates in place.VerveSheets →Reference →