feat(agents): include current date and day-of-week in system prompt by chengjialu8888 · Pull Request #43304 · openclaw/openclaw

chengjialu8888 · 2026-03-11T15:44:13Z

Summary

Problem: Agents frequently get the day of week and date wrong during calendar/scheduling tasks because the system prompt only contains the timezone, not the actual date.
Why it matters: Users rely on agents for scheduling, and wrong day-of-week responses erode trust. This is the most upvoted time-related issue with 14 comments.
What changed: Added a cache-stable currentDate field (e.g., "Wednesday, March 12, 2026") to the system prompt, computed via Intl.DateTimeFormat in the user's timezone.

Cache Stability

Previous PRs (#32586, #40199) were rejected because injecting time into the system prompt breaks prefix caching. This PR only injects the date (no time component), which changes once per calendar day — preserving ~24h cache windows while solving the day-of-week problem.

Approach	Changes every	Cache impact
Current (timezone only)	Never	None
PR #32586 (full time)	Every minute	Cache destroyed
This PR (date only)	Once per day	Minimal

Changes

src/agents/system-prompt-params.ts — Added currentDate field using Intl.DateTimeFormat with weekday+date (no time)
src/agents/system-prompt.ts — Updated buildTimeSection() to render currentDate above the timezone line

Output

## Current Date & Time
Wednesday, March 12, 2026
Time zone: America/New_York

Testing

Backward compatible: currentDate is optional; omitting it produces identical output to before
Intl.DateTimeFormat is stable across Node.js versions
Date changes only at midnight in the user's timezone

Changelog

Updated.

greptile-apps · 2026-03-11T15:46:01Z

Greptile Summary

This PR attempts to inject the current date (with weekday) into the agent system prompt to fix incorrect day-of-week responses during scheduling tasks. The approach — computing a date string via Intl.DateTimeFormat and inserting it into buildTimeSection — is well-designed and cache-friendly. However, there is a critical wiring bug that makes the feature a no-op in its current state.

Key issues found:

Critical — feature never activates: buildAgentSystemPrompt's parameter type (lines 195–242 of system-prompt.ts) was not extended with a currentDate field. The expression params.currentDate at line 573 therefore always resolves to undefined, meaning buildTimeSection never receives the date string and the rendered prompt is identical to before. In strict TypeScript this would be a compile error.
Stale hint creates redundant tool calls: The instruction on line 513–515 telling agents to call session_status for the current date/day-of-week should be conditioned on currentDate being absent; otherwise agents will make an unnecessary tool call for information already present in the prompt.

Confidence Score: 2/5

Not safe to merge — the core feature is wired incorrectly and will silently do nothing.
The currentDate computation in system-prompt-params.ts is correct, but the value is never plumbed into buildAgentSystemPrompt because the function's parameter type was not updated to include the field. As a result the PR ships no functional change. The secondary issue (stale session_status hint) is a usability concern once the wiring is fixed.
src/agents/system-prompt.ts — buildAgentSystemPrompt parameter type must be extended with currentDate?: string

Comments Outside Diff (1)

src/agents/system-prompt.ts, line 513-515 (link)

Stale session_status hint contradicts the new behaviour

This line tells the agent to call session_status whenever it needs the current date or day of week — but the whole purpose of this PR is to supply that information directly in the system prompt. Once currentDate is properly forwarded (see the other comment), retaining this hint will cause agents to make an unnecessary tool call for information they already have.

Consider guarding the hint so it only appears when currentDate is not present:

This keeps backward compatibility for callers that don't supply currentDate while avoiding the redundant instruction when the date is already injected.

Prompt To Fix With AI

This is a comment left during a code review.
Path: src/agents/system-prompt.ts
Line: 513-515

Comment:
**Stale `session_status` hint contradicts the new behaviour**

This line tells the agent to call `session_status` whenever it needs the current date or day of week — but the whole purpose of this PR is to supply that information directly in the system prompt. Once `currentDate` is properly forwarded (see the other comment), retaining this hint will cause agents to make an unnecessary tool call for information they already have.

Consider guarding the hint so it only appears when `currentDate` is *not* present:



This keeps backward compatibility for callers that don't supply `currentDate` while avoiding the redundant instruction when the date is already injected.

How can I resolve this? If you propose a fix, please make it concise.

_{Last reviewed commit: 1a0ca55}

greptile-apps · 2026-03-11T15:46:04Z

src/agents/system-prompt.ts

    ...buildUserIdentitySection(ownerLine, isMinimal),
    ...buildTimeSection({
      userTimezone,
+      currentDate: params.currentDate,
    }),


currentDate never forwarded — feature is silently broken

buildAgentSystemPrompt's parameter type (lines 195–242) does not declare a currentDate field. Accessing params.currentDate here will always yield undefined (or a TypeScript compile error in strict mode), so buildTimeSection will never receive the date string and the output will be identical to the pre-PR behavior.

The param type needs to be extended:

Suggested change

...buildUserIdentitySection(ownerLine, isMinimal),

...buildTimeSection({

userTimezone,

currentDate: params.currentDate,

}),

...buildTimeSection({

userTimezone,

currentDate: params.currentDate,

}),

And the function signature must also include the new field, for example:

export function buildAgentSystemPrompt(params: { // ... existing fields ... currentDate?: string; // ... }) {

Without this, the entire feature is a no-op.

Prompt To Fix With AI

This is a comment left during a code review. Path: src/agents/system-prompt.ts Line: 570-574 Comment: **`currentDate` never forwarded — feature is silently broken** `buildAgentSystemPrompt`'s parameter type (lines 195–242) does not declare a `currentDate` field. Accessing `params.currentDate` here will always yield `undefined` (or a TypeScript compile error in strict mode), so `buildTimeSection` will never receive the date string and the output will be identical to the pre-PR behavior. The param type needs to be extended: ```suggestion ...buildTimeSection({ userTimezone, currentDate: params.currentDate, }), ``` And the function signature must also include the new field, for example: ```ts export function buildAgentSystemPrompt(params: { // ... existing fields ... currentDate?: string; // ... }) { ``` Without this, the entire feature is a no-op. How can I resolve this? If you propose a fix, please make it concise.

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chatgpt-codex-connector · 2026-03-11T15:49:05Z

src/agents/system-prompt-params.ts

    userTimezone,
    userTime,
    userTimeFormat,
+    currentDate,


Thread currentDate through system prompt builders

currentDate is computed and returned here, but it is never propagated in the main prompt construction paths, so the new date/day-of-week line never appears at runtime. In all buildSystemPromptParams consumers, the destructuring still omits this field (src/auto-reply/reply/commands-system-prompt.ts:85, src/agents/cli-runner/helpers.ts:60, src/agents/pi-embedded-runner/run/attempt.ts:975), which leaves params.currentDate undefined when buildTimeSection renders the prompt. This makes the fix effectively a no-op for users relying on scheduling/date context.

Useful? React with 👍 / 👎.

chengjialu8888 added 2 commits March 11, 2026 23:43

feat: compute cache-stable currentDate in system prompt params

66cfc1e

feat: render currentDate in system prompt time section

1a0ca55

greptile-apps bot reviewed Mar 11, 2026

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chatgpt-codex-connector bot reviewed Mar 11, 2026

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openclaw-barnacle bot added agents Agent runtime and tooling size: XS labels Mar 11, 2026

fix: wire currentDate param into buildAgentSystemPrompt

b688da2

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feat(agents): include current date and day-of-week in system prompt#43304

feat(agents): include current date and day-of-week in system prompt#43304
chengjialu8888 wants to merge 3 commits intoopenclaw:mainfrom
chengjialu8888:feat/system-prompt-current-date

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chengjialu8888 commented Mar 11, 2026

Summary

Cache Stability

Changes

Output

Testing

Changelog

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Greptile Summary

Confidence Score: 2/5

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greptile-apps bot commented Mar 11, 2026 •

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