The MCP Simple Timeserver enables Claude to access accurate time information through two key capabilities:
Get Local Time and Timezone: Retrieve the current local time and timezone details from the user's machine, helping Claude understand the user's local context.
Get UTC Time from NTP Server: Fetch precise Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) from an NTP server, with the option to specify a custom NTP server address for universal time reference.
Click on "Install Server".
Wait a few minutes for the server to deploy. Once ready, it will show a "Started" state.
In the chat, type
@followed by the MCP server name and your instructions, e.g., "@MCP Simple Timeserverwhat time is it locally?"
That's it! The server will respond to your query, and you can continue using it as needed.
Here is a step-by-step guide with screenshots.
MCP Simple Timeserver
One of the strange design decisions Anthropic made was depriving Claude of timestamps for messages sent by the user in claude.ai or current time in general. Poor Claude can't tell what time it is!
Available Tools
This server provides the following tools:
Tool | Description |
| Returns the current local time, day of week, and timezone from the user's machine |
| Returns accurate UTC time from an NTP time server |
| Returns current time with optional location, timezone, and calendar conversions |
| Calculates duration between two dates/times (countdowns, elapsed time) |
| Returns public holidays (and optionally school holidays) for a country |
| Checks if a specific date is a holiday in a given country or city |
All tools (except get_local_time) use accurate time from NTP servers. If NTP is unavailable, they gracefully fall back to local server time with a notice.
Location Support via get_current_time
The get_current_time tool supports location parameters to get local time anywhere in the world:
Parameter | Description | Example |
| City name (primary use case) |
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| Country name or ISO code |
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| IANA timezone or UTC offset |
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Priority: timezone > city > country. When location is provided, the response includes local time, timezone info, UTC offset, and DST status.
If today is a public holiday at the specified location, it will be shown in the output.
Calendar Support via get_current_time
The get_current_time tool also accepts an optional calendar parameter with a comma-separated list of calendar formats:
Calendar | Description |
| Unix timestamp (seconds since 1970-01-01) |
| ISO 8601 week date (e.g., |
| Islamic/Hijri lunar calendar |
| Japanese Era calendar (returns both English and Kanji) |
| Hebrew/Jewish calendar (returns both English and Hebrew, includes holidays) |
| Persian/Jalali calendar (returns both English and Farsi) |
Example: get_current_time(city="Tokyo", calendar="japanese") returns Tokyo local time with Japanese Era calendar.
Time Distance Calculation via calculate_time_distance
Calculate duration between two dates or times:
Parameter | Description | Example |
| Start date (ISO 8601 or "now") |
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| End date (ISO 8601 or "now") |
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| Output format |
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| Count only Mon-Fri (date-based, inclusive) |
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| Also exclude public holidays (requires country/city) |
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Location parameters (city, country, timezone) can also be used to specify timezone context.
When business_days=true, time-of-day is ignored and dates are counted as full days (inclusive endpoints).
The unit parameter is ignored in this mode. Holidays are excluded only when they fall on weekdays.
Example: calculate_time_distance(from_date="now", to_date="2025-12-31") returns a countdown to New Year's Eve.
Example: calculate_time_distance(from_date="2026-01-26", to_date="2026-01-30", business_days=true, exclude_holidays=true, city="Sydney") returns the number of business days in that range.
Holiday Information via get_holidays and is_holiday
Get public and school holiday information for ~119 countries:
get_holidays parameters:
Parameter | Description | Example |
| Country name or ISO code (required) |
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| Year to get holidays for (default: current year) |
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| Include school vacation periods |
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is_holiday parameters:
Parameter | Description | Example |
| Country name or ISO code |
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| City name for region-specific info |
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| Date to check in ISO format (default: today) |
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Regional School Holidays: When using the city parameter with is_holiday, school holidays are filtered to show only those affecting the specific region. This is particularly useful in countries where school holidays vary by region (e.g., Polish voivodeships, German Bundesländer, Spanish autonomous communities).
Example: is_holiday(city="Warsaw", date="2026-01-19") returns school holiday information specific to the Mazowieckie voivodeship.
Data Sources:
Public holidays: Nager.Date API (119 countries)
School holidays: OpenHolidaysAPI (36 countries, mostly European)
Related MCP server: whattimeisit-mcp
Installation
Installing via Smithery
To install Simple Timeserver for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:
Manual Installation
First install the module using:
Then configure in MCP client - the Claude desktop app.
Under Mac OS this will look like this:
Under Windows you have to check the path to your Python executable using where python in the cmd (Windows command line).
Typical configuration would look like this:
Web Server Variant
This project also includes a network-hostable version that can be deployed as a standalone web server. For instructions on how to run and deploy it, please see the Web Server Deployment Guide.
Or you can simply use my server by adding it under https://mcp.andybrandt.net/timeserver to Claude and other tools that support MCP.