name: datetime description: Get current date and time in various formats. Use whenever you need the current date, time, timestamps, or formatted datetime values for any purpose (logging, file naming, scheduling, comparisons, etc.)

datetime - Current Date & Time

Get the current date and time in various formats.

Quick Reference

# Date only
date +%Y-%m-%d                    # 2025-01-15
date +%Y/%m/%d                    # 2025/01/15
date +%d-%m-%Y                    # 15-01-2025

# Date with time
date +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"         # 2025-01-15 14:30:45
date +"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"         # 2025-01-15T14:30:45 (ISO 8601)
date -u +"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ"     # 2025-01-15T14:30:45Z (UTC ISO 8601)

# Time only
date +%H:%M:%S                    # 14:30:45
date +%H:%M                       # 14:30
date +%I:%M%p                     # 02:30PM (12-hour)

# Timestamps
date +%s                          # 1705329045 (Unix epoch)
date +%s%3N                       # 1705329045123 (milliseconds)

# Human readable
date "+%B %d, %Y"                 # January 15, 2025
date "+%A, %B %d, %Y"             # Wednesday, January 15, 2025
date "+%b %d %Y"                  # Jan 15 2025

# File-safe formats (no colons/spaces)
date +%Y%m%d                      # 20250115
date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S               # 20250115_143045
date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S               # 20250115-143045

When to Use

Use this skill whenever you need:

• Current date for logging or timestamps
• Date strings for file naming
• ISO 8601 formatted dates for APIs
• Unix timestamps for calculations
• Human-readable date displays
• UTC time for cross-timezone consistency

Format Codes

Common Patterns

Log timestamp:

echo "[$(date +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")] Event occurred"

Backup file naming:

cp file.txt "file_$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S).txt"

API timestamp (UTC):

date -u +"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ"