fix(logs): respect TZ env var for timestamp display, fix Windows timezone by hydro13 · Pull Request #21859 · openclaw/openclaw

hydro13 · 2026-02-20T13:26:30Z

Summary

openclaw logs always displayed UTC timestamps regardless of the TZ environment variable. On Windows especially, Node.js does not reliably read TZ to adjust getHours() / getTimezoneOffset() — the methods used by the old implementation.

Root Cause

formatLocalIsoWithOffset() in src/logging/timestamps.ts manually assembled a timestamp using getHours(), getMinutes(), getTimezoneOffset() etc. These methods read the process timezone from the OS — which on Windows does not pick up the TZ environment variable set by the user.

Fix

1. `src/logging/timestamps.ts` — rewrite using `Intl.DateTimeFormat`

Replace the old manual approach with Intl.DateTimeFormat using an explicit timeZone parameter. Intl correctly resolves timezone conversions on all platforms including Windows.

Function now accepts an optional timeZone argument, falling back to process.env.TZ, then Intl.DateTimeFormat().resolvedOptions().timeZone
Added parseGmtOffset() helper to normalize "GMT+8" → "+08:00" format

2. `src/cli/logs-cli.ts` — auto-enable local time when `TZ` is set

// Before
const localTime = Boolean(opts.localTime);

// After
const localTime = Boolean(opts.localTime) || Boolean(process.env.TZ);

Users who set TZ=Asia/Shanghai now see local timestamps automatically without needing --local-time.

Tests

6 tests in src/logging/timestamps.test.ts:

Test	Result
UTC → `+00:00` offset	✅
`Asia/Shanghai` → `+08:00`, correct hour conversion	✅
`America/New_York` winter (EST) → `-05:00`	✅
`America/New_York` summer (EDT) → `-04:00`	✅
Output matches ISO 8601 with offset regex	✅
Source does NOT contain `getHours`, `getMinutes`, `getTimezoneOffset`	✅

All 43 tests in src/logging/ pass.

Fixes #21606

Greptile Summary

Replaced manual timezone offset calculation with Intl.DateTimeFormat to properly respect the TZ environment variable on all platforms, especially Windows. The implementation correctly uses timeZone parameter in Intl.DateTimeFormat which resolves timezone conversions reliably across platforms. The PR also auto-enables local time display when TZ is set in the environment.

Confidence Score: 5/5

This PR is safe to merge with minimal risk
The implementation is a well-tested refactoring that replaces platform-dependent Date methods with the standard Intl.DateTimeFormat API. All 6 new tests pass including timezone conversion validation, DST handling, and verification that legacy methods are no longer used. The change is backward compatible (optional parameter) and addresses a real cross-platform bug on Windows.
No files require special attention

_{Last reviewed commit: b39bb3a}

HenryLoenwind · 2026-02-20T15:27:30Z

src/logging/timestamps.ts

-  const tzMinutes = String(Math.abs(tzOffset) % 60).padStart(2, "0");
-  return `${year}-${month}-${day}T${h}:${m}:${s}.${ms}${tzSign}${tzHours}:${tzMinutes}`;
+export function formatLocalIsoWithOffset(now: Date, timeZone?: string): string {
+  const tz = timeZone ?? process.env.TZ ?? Intl.DateTimeFormat().resolvedOptions().timeZone;


env.TZ needs to be checked. What happens when someone runs TZ="yo agent's" openclaw logs?

HenryLoenwind · 2026-02-20T15:28:06Z

src/cli/logs-cli.ts

    const pretty = !jsonMode && Boolean(process.stdout.isTTY) && !opts.plain;
    const rich = isRich() && opts.color !== false;
-    const localTime = Boolean(opts.localTime);
+    const localTime = Boolean(opts.localTime) || Boolean(process.env.TZ);


Again, existence is not enough, it needs to be usable.

HenryLoenwind · 2026-02-20T15:28:55Z

src/logging/timestamps.ts

+  const tz = timeZone ?? process.env.TZ ?? Intl.DateTimeFormat().resolvedOptions().timeZone;
+
+  // Use Intl.DateTimeFormat to get date/time parts in the target timezone
+  const fmt = new Intl.DateTimeFormat("en-CA", {


"en-CA"? Nothing against Canada, but...

HenryLoenwind · 2026-02-20T15:30:47Z

src/logging/timestamps.ts

+  const partsMap = Object.fromEntries(fmt.formatToParts(now).map((p) => [p.type, p.value]));
+
+  // Get the UTC offset string for the target timezone
+  const offsetFmt = new Intl.DateTimeFormat("en", {


Can't those two calls be combined?

HenryLoenwind · 2026-02-20T15:42:49Z

src/logging/timestamps.ts

+  // Get the UTC offset string for the target timezone
+  const offsetFmt = new Intl.DateTimeFormat("en", {
+    timeZone: tz,
+    timeZoneName: "shortOffset",


Just use longOffset and snip away the "GMT" at the beginning.

hydro13

Thanks for the thorough review! All 5 points addressed:

Added isValidTimeZone() (try/catch Intl validation) — invalid TZ values like "yo agent's" now fall back to the system timezone instead of crashing or producing garbage
localTime in logs-cli.ts now requires both truthiness and a valid timezone via isValidTimeZone()
Locale changed from "en-CA" to "en"
Merged both Intl.DateTimeFormat calls into one with timeZoneName: "longOffset" included
parseGmtOffset() deleted — longOffset already produces zero-padded "GMT+08:00" format, so .slice(3) suffices (and "GMT" maps directly to "+00:00")

HenryLoenwind

Looks good now. 👍

openclaw-barnacle · 2026-02-28T04:09:20Z

This pull request has been automatically marked as stale due to inactivity.
Please add updates or it will be closed.

hydro13 · 2026-02-28T09:53:34Z

Rebased on current main. Still relevant and ready for merge.

hydro13 · 2026-03-02T01:12:08Z

The failing Windows CI check (checks-windows (node, test, 2, 2)) is unrelated to this PR.

The failure is in extensions/feishu/src/client.test.ts — a proxy env var case-sensitivity test that fails on Windows because Windows env vars are case-insensitive (https_proxy vs HTTPS_PROXY ordering differs). This is a pre-existing flaky test on the Windows runner, not introduced by the timezone fix in this PR.

All other checks pass ✅. Happy to rebase if needed.

…zone

…zone (#21859)

…zone (openclaw#21859)

openclaw-barnacle bot added cli CLI command changes size: S labels Feb 20, 2026

HenryLoenwind suggested changes Feb 20, 2026

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hydro13 commented Feb 20, 2026

View reviewed changes

hydro13 force-pushed the fix/logs-tz-env-var-windows branch from 330c884 to 4449308 Compare February 20, 2026 16:15

openclaw-barnacle bot added the docs Improvements or additions to documentation label Feb 20, 2026

HenryLoenwind approved these changes Feb 20, 2026

View reviewed changes

openclaw-barnacle bot added the stale Marked as stale due to inactivity label Feb 28, 2026

hydro13 force-pushed the fix/logs-tz-env-var-windows branch from 4abfc11 to 8d315f2 Compare February 28, 2026 09:53

openclaw-barnacle bot removed docs Improvements or additions to documentation stale Marked as stale due to inactivity labels Feb 28, 2026

This was referenced Mar 2, 2026

fix(slack): type message.channels/group handlers #31758

Merged

test(windows): fix exec wrapper tsgo gate regression #31771

Merged

fix(logs): respect TZ env var for timestamp display, fix Windows time…

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…zone

Takhoffman force-pushed the fix/logs-tz-env-var-windows branch from 8d315f2 to d995ef5 Compare March 2, 2026 14:44

Takhoffman merged commit 9f98d27 into openclaw:main Mar 2, 2026
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vabole mentioned this pull request Mar 2, 2026

ops: decision needed for upstream sync (4 disputed files) vabole/openclaw#7

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execute008 pushed a commit to execute008/openclaw that referenced this pull request Mar 2, 2026

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fix(logs): respect TZ env var for timestamp display, fix Windows timezone#21859

fix(logs): respect TZ env var for timestamp display, fix Windows timezone#21859
Takhoffman merged 1 commit intoopenclaw:mainfrom
hydro13:fix/logs-tz-env-var-windows

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hydro13 commented Feb 20, 2026 • edited by greptile-apps bot Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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Summary

Root Cause

Fix

1. src/logging/timestamps.ts — rewrite using Intl.DateTimeFormat

2. src/cli/logs-cli.ts — auto-enable local time when TZ is set

Tests

Greptile Summary

Confidence Score: 5/5

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hydro13 commented Feb 20, 2026 •

edited by greptile-apps bot

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1. `src/logging/timestamps.ts` — rewrite using `Intl.DateTimeFormat`

2. `src/cli/logs-cli.ts` — auto-enable local time when `TZ` is set

HenryLoenwind Feb 20, 2026 •

edited

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