now-mcp

A small MCP server that gives Claude the current date and time. Paste a URL, done.

Why I made this

English: I needed time-awareness in my own Claude workflow. Claude doesn't know the current date or time by default — it guesses or refuses. So I built this for myself. Anthropic will probably ship this natively at some point; when they do, this becomes obsolete and that's fine.

日本語: 自分の作業に時間の感覚が必要だったから作っただけ。Claudeはデフォルトで日付も時刻も知らない（推測するか答えない）。Anthropicがいずれ公式対応するはずで、そうなったらこれは不要になる。それでいい。

Related MCP server: DateTime MCP Server

How to use

claude.ai → Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector

Paste this URL:

https://now-mcp.jyagunii.workers.dev/mcp

That's it. No setup, no copy-paste prompts.

Custom MCP connectors on claude.ai require Pro / Max / Team / Enterprise plans (Free added MCP support in Feb 2026).

Optional: pin your timezone

Append ?tz= with your IANA timezone for guaranteed accuracy:

https://now-mcp.jyagunii.workers.dev/mcp?tz=Asia/Tokyo

To find your timezone, visit: https://now-mcp.jyagunii.workers.dev/

What it does

One tool: get_current_time(timezone?)

• Returns ISO 8601 timestamp, human-readable time, weekday, unix milliseconds

• Timezone resolution: argument → URL param ?tz= → Cloudflare geolocation → UTC

Example response

{
  "iso": "2026-05-08T13:09:20+09:00",
  "human": "2026-05-08 13:09 Fri (Asia/Tokyo)",
  "timezone": "Asia/Tokyo",
  "weekday": "Fri",
  "unix_ms": 1778632000000,
  "_timezone_source": "argument"
}

_timezone_source indicates where the timezone came from: argument, url_param, cloudflare_geo, or fallback.

Where it works, where it doesn't

Works

• claude.ai web/mobile users with default location settings

• Users with ?tz=... URL param set

• Users running Now Extension for Claude (Chrome extension that injects timestamps)

Doesn't work

• Users who disabled location in Claude privacy settings

• VPN users (gets the VPN exit node's timezone)

• Direct Anthropic API users (no system prompt with location)

• Other MCP clients (Cursor, Zed, etc. — depends on the client)

These are mostly technical users. If that's you, just pass the timezone argument explicitly, set the URL param, fork the repo, or self-host. You can solve it.

Why MCP alone can't perfectly handle "world support"

Documenting this because it took a while to figure out:

1. MCP protocol has no way to convey user locale to the server. Confirmed in the official spec.

2. For remote MCP servers, the request comes from the AI provider's datacenter, not the user. Verified: Claude calls reach this server from Anthropic, PBC in Virginia, not from the user's actual location.

3. The AI must read user location from its system prompt and pass it as an argument. This is the only viable path, and it depends on the AI's judgment — not 100% reliable.

This is a structural limitation of MCP, not a bug.

Self-host

git clone https://github.com/jyagunii-bot/now-mcp.git
cd now-mcp
npm install
npx wrangler login
npm run deploy

Runs on Cloudflare Workers free tier.

Customize

Edit src/index.ts:

• tools[0].description — how Claude perceives the tool

• instructions (in the initialize handler) — operating rules sent to Claude

• resolveTimezone() — fallback behavior

Then npm run deploy.

Companion

🔗 Now Extension for Claude — Chrome extension that injects current timestamp into every message. Works alongside this MCP for full accuracy in Chrome.

License

MIT — no warranty, use at your own risk.

Author

@jyagunii-bot