fix(status): return current time from session_status and harden time-hint prompt

connermo · claude · connermo · commit 071f4ebe2dee · 2026-07-05T13:40:58.000+08:00
The session_status status card had a timeLine render slot that was never
populated, so the model was told to call session_status for the date/time
yet got none back and would guess (time hallucination). Derive the live
Current time line from now + config timezone in buildStatusMessage so both
the /status command and session_status tool surface it, and strengthen the
system-prompt hint to forbid guessing the current time.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) &lt;noreply@anthropic.com&gt;
diff --git a/src/agents/system-prompt.ts b/src/agents/system-prompt.ts
@@ -1152,7 +1152,7 @@ export function buildAgentSystemPrompt(params: {
         : "",
       params.modelAliasLines && params.modelAliasLines.length > 0 && !isMinimal ? "" : "",
       userTimezone
-        ? "If you need the current date, time, or day of week, run session_status (📊 session_status)."
+        ? "Never assume or guess the current date, time, or day of week; your training data is stale. Whenever anything depends on the present moment (scheduling, deadlines, age/elapsed math, or words like today/now/tomorrow/this week), first run session_status (📊 session_status) and use its `Current time` value."
         : "",
       "## Workspace",
       `Your working directory is: ${displayWorkspaceDir}`,
diff --git a/src/status/status-message.test.ts b/src/status/status-message.test.ts
@@ -20,6 +20,26 @@ afterEach(() => {
   cliBackendsTesting.resetDepsForTest();
 });
 
+describe("buildStatusMessage current time", () => {
+  it("surfaces a live current-time line so session_status returns the date/time", () => {
+    // 2025-07-03T08:00:00Z; the Reference UTC line is timezone-independent.
+    const now = 1_751_529_600_000;
+    const text = buildStatusMessage({
+      now,
+      config: { agents: { defaults: { userTimezone: "UTC", timeFormat: "24" } } },
+      agent: { model: "anthropic/claude-haiku-4-5" },
+      sessionKey: "agent:main:main",
+      sessionScope: "per-sender",
+      queue: { mode: "steer", depth: 0 },
+      modelAuth: "api-key",
+    });
+
+    expect(text).toContain("Current time:");
+    expect(text).toContain("(UTC)");
+    expect(text).toContain("Reference UTC: 2025-07-03 08:00 UTC");
+  });
+});
+
 describe("buildStatusMessage context window", () => {
   it("ignores stale runtime context after a manual session model switch", () => {
     const text = buildStatusMessage({
diff --git a/src/status/status-message.ts b/src/status/status-message.ts
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import {
   normalizeOptionalString,
 } from "@openclaw/normalization-core/string-coerce";
 import { resolveContextTokensForModel } from "../agents/context.js";
+import { resolveCronStyleNow } from "../agents/current-time.js";
 import { DEFAULT_CONTEXT_TOKENS, DEFAULT_MODEL, DEFAULT_PROVIDER } from "../agents/defaults.js";
 import { resolveExtraParams } from "../agents/embedded-agent-runner/extra-params.js";
 import { resolveFastModeState } from "../agents/fast-mode.js";
@@ -563,6 +564,12 @@ function hasUserPinnedModelSelection(entry: SessionEntry | undefined): boolean {
 
 export function buildStatusMessage(args: StatusArgs): string {
   const now = args.now ?? Date.now();
+  // Live wall-clock line for the status card. The field/render slot existed but
+  // was never populated, so the model (told to call session_status for the date/
+  // time) got none back and would guess. Derive from `now` + config timezone so
+  // every render path (/status command and session_status tool) surfaces it.
+  const timeLine =
+    args.timeLine ?? (args.config ? resolveCronStyleNow(args.config, now).timeLine : undefined);
   const entry = args.sessionEntry;
   const selectionConfig = {
     agents: {
@@ -1113,7 +1120,7 @@ export function buildStatusMessage(args: StatusArgs): string {
 
   return [
     versionLine,
-    args.timeLine,
+    timeLine,
     args.uptimeLine,
     ...modelLines,
     configuredFallbacksLine,
