deepseek-harness/packages/context/time-context

@deepseek-ai/dsh-time-context

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Opt-in durable context with the current zoned time and elapsed time sampled during model-request preparation. dsh-agent-spine-demo and shipped examples do not mount it. Decision record: the durable time-context Agent Note.

Config

- id: time-context
  name: '@deepseek-ai/dsh-time-context'
  config:
    timeZone: Asia/Shanghai  # optional IANA override; omit for the process zone
    refreshIntervalMs: 60000 # optional; omit or set to 0 for every eligible attempt

When timeZone is omitted, the plugin resolves the Node process's system zone once at plugin load. Node honors TZ; without that override, the host or container supplies the zone. An explicit timeZone must be an IANA identifier and is validated at plugin load.

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 have elapsed since the latest injection.

Timing semantics

The plugin prepends an agent/pre-step listener. When an injection is due and the downstream decision enters the proposed step, it adds one sourced UserMessage to the returned batch. AgentLoop records that context after step/start and before ordinary automatic compaction with source { kind: 'plugin', plugin: 'time-context' }. A suppressed, rejected, or failed pre-step records nothing.

Positive-interval scheduling scans the raw durable session events for the latest user/message with that source, including a reading shadowed by compaction. The schedule therefore applies across turns and resumed processes without process-local cache state. It reduces append frequency and history growth but never removes an existing reading, and sessions schedule independently.

Step 1 measures from the latest preceding model-visible message, including the prompt that opened the turn. Later steps measure from the preceding time-context event in the same turn. Both baselines use durable session-event timestamps; backward wall-clock movement clamps elapsed time to zero. A missing first-step baseline, or a later step with no earlier same-turn reading because interval suppression skipped it, reports unavailable.

A time reading records an entered pre-step batch, not a completed step or transmitted request. A later request-preparation failure can therefore leave the reading in history, but a downstream pre-step listener that rejects or fails prevents it from being recorded.

The separately published ./invariant companion checks each plugin-attributed reading against the open turn, next pre-step position, elapsed baseline, and durable event time. Its rendered timestamp must parse and cannot postdate the event; process suspension between sampling and append does not invalidate the reading.

The time reading stays in derived conversation history until a later compaction shadows it. Request headers contain no time-context state. Request reconstruction uses the complete durable surface prefix after each step/start, so transmitted requests need not map one-to-one to readings: request preparation can fail after step entry, while interval suppression can let a request reuse existing history without adding one.

Model Experience

Preparation-time temporal context

What the model sees

On each preparation attempt that injects, one source-tagged context message containing the two lines below. <timestamp> is an ISO-shaped local timestamp with numeric offset and IANA zone; durations use compact whole-second units. Positive intervals can leave an attempted step without a new reading.

First step

Time sampled while preparing turn <turn>, step 1: <timestamp>
Elapsed since the preceding model-visible message: <duration-or-unavailable>.

Later steps

Time sampled while preparing turn <turn>, step <step>: <timestamp>
Elapsed since the preceding step context: <duration-or-unavailable>.

Token effect

Each injected two-line message accumulates until compaction shadows it. A positive interval reduces additions; omission or 0 adds one for 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

• Whole-second display — timestamps and durations omit sub-second precision even though durable event times retain milliseconds.
• Session-event baseline — elapsed time starts from durable append timestamps, not a client transport's original send timestamp.
• Process-local default zone — omission uses the Node process's TZ, host, or container zone captured at plugin load, not a remote user's zone; configure an explicit IANA zone when those differ.
• History cost between compactions — omission or 0 retains one reading for every eligible preparation attempt, including attempts later cancelled or failed; a positive interval reduces but does not eliminate this cost.