Current Date and Time

What it is

Current Date and Time is the native tool that tells the agent the present instant in the organization’s time zone. Use it when an answer depends on “now”, such as identifying the weekday, comparing a deadline, or checking whether a service window is open.

The result is already converted. The contract sent to the model says to use the local date, time, and weekday directly, without applying another offset. This prevents the agent from adding or subtracting the time zone twice.

The tool only reads the clock. It does not create schedules, reminders, or tasks, does not know holidays, and does not perform an action when a date arrives.

Add it to an agent

You need permission to edit the agent (agents.write). On an already saved agent:

1. Open Agents, select the agent, and go to Tools.
2. Select Add Tool.
3. Under Native Tools, choose Current Date and Time.

The connection has no required parameter. When you open the tool, its panel shows the effective time zone, a Now in this timezone preview, and the Change link. This panel is read-only: the time zone is no longer selected separately on every agent.

Set the organization time zone

There is one time zone for the whole organization. It also governs time windows in Automations, campaigns, inboxes, and Transfer Conversation.

To change it:

1. From the profile menu, open Settings.
2. Go to Organization.
3. Under Time zone, search for and select an IANA identifier such as America/Sao_Paulo, Europe/Lisbon, or UTC.
4. Check the Right now in that zone preview and select Save Customization.

Only the owner can edit the organization’s identity and time zone. Other people can see the value, but the selector and save action are disabled. See the full map under Organization Settings.

The runtime reads organizations.timezone while preparing the tool on every turn. After a new time zone is saved, subsequent calls use the new value. A timezone value that remains in an older tool configuration is ignored.

When the agent uses it

The model receives an explicit instruction to call get_current_datetime when it needs the current date or time, including business-hours, working-day, or scheduling reasoning. Examples:

• “What day is today?”
• “Is our support team open right now?”
• “Is this coupon still within its validity period?”
• “What date is five days from now?”

Enabling the tool does not guarantee a call in every message. The model decides whether the present instant is needed. For critical rules, state in the prompt when the lookup must happen, for example: “Before saying support is open, call Current Date and Time”.

What the call returns

The tool takes no arguments and returns a snapshot of the same instant:

Field	Content
timezone	the organization’s effective IANA identifier
weekday	weekday in English, such as Monday
localTime	local date and time as YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss
iso	local date and time in ISO 8601 with an explicit UTC offset
utc	the same instant in UTC, for reference only

The model is instructed to treat weekday, localTime, and iso as local time. It should not reconvert utc to answer the person.

Limits and cautions

• One time zone per organization. The tool does not detect each contact’s time zone or use the browser clock of the person who configured the agent.
• No calendar included. “Working day” requires weekend and holiday rules. Provide the applicable calendar through a knowledge base or integration and validate critical calculations in the responsible application.
• No future execution. To trigger something later, use an Automation or an integration that can schedule; this tool only reads the current instant.
• Current fallback. If the time zone is missing, invalid, or cannot be read, the runtime silently uses America/Sao_Paulo. If an answer appears shifted, check Settings → Organization and try again; do not compensate manually in the prompt.
• Prompt hours. Write windows in the organization’s local time, such as “from 9am to 5pm”, and require a fresh lookup whenever the decision depends on “now”.