Date context — prepends TZ-local current date to background prompts

Category: infra Where it works: Hermes (background lane) · Spark tasks · background scripts Source: _infra/scripts/lib/date_context.py

What it is

Internal zero-dependency lib. Prepends “Today’s date is …” (local TZ) to any background-lane prompt so the model never falls back to its training-cutoff year when reasoning about “latest”, “this year”, or relative time.

How to trigger it

  • Auto-fires inside background scripts (no operator action).
  • Imported via from date_context import current_date_context.

How to use it

Call current_date_context() and prepend the string to the task prompt before sending to Hermes or any background model.

Practical examples

  1. Background research job — current-year recommendations use the real local date.
  2. Research daemon — “best tools 2026” instead of hallucinating 2025.

Notes / limits

Internal only. Not operator-triggered. Uses system timezone. Harvested from Odysseus repo 2026-06-08.