Time-MCP

This is an MCP server for agents to get the current time (and date).

Usage

Claude Desktop App

Add time_mcp_server.py to the list of MCP servers in the Claude Desktop App config file at ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "time": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "--directory",
                "/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/PARENT/FOLDER/time-mcp",
                "run",
                "time_mcp_server.py"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Save the file, and restart Claude for Desktop.

Note: You may need to put the full path to the uv executable in the command field. You can get this by running which uv on MacOS/Linux or where uv on Windows.

This is based on Testing your server with Claude for Desktop from https://modelcontextprotocol.io/quickstart/server.

Custom client (or Linux)

Since this is an STDIO-based MCP server, the best way is to implement a client in a similar fashion as the official example client tutorial (https://modelcontextprotocol.io/quickstart/client). Instead of the example weather.py MCP server, use time_mcp_server.py.

Why?

It seems helpful and kind of important for agents to know what time (and date) it is. Enables agents to fulfill time-dependent tasks such as "what time is it in Pacifica?" or "what will the weather be 3 hours from now?"

Tools

Time-MCP provides two tools, get_datetime and get_current_unix_timestamp which return a formatted datetime in the specified timezone (UTC if none specified) and the current UNIX timestamp, respectively.

With/Without Time-MCP:

Without:

Time Provider