fix(tools): require timezone on time tools, inject user timezone into the prompt by WSHAPER · Pull Request #257 · nextcloud/context_agent

WSHAPER · 2026-10-07T09:46:16Z

Fixes #3
Fixes #231

timezone is now a required, pytz-validated parameter on schedule_event / add_task / update_task and the scheduled-task tools; a missing or invalid IANA name returns an actionable error to the model instead of silently resolving the time in server/UTC. The system prompt now carries the requesting user's actual timezone (OCS /cloud/user) plus the current time in that tz.

The find_details_of_current_user instruction stays as a fallback for profiles without a timezone. freebusy_finder's naive utcnow() became tz-aware UTC.

For #231, schedule_event now builds the event with icalendar instead of the ics library (which serializes any aware datetime to UTC): DTSTART/DTEND keep the supplied timezone as DTSTART;TZID=…. The organizer's mailto tolerates profiles without an email, as before.

Heads-up: tool callers (incl. MCP) that omitted timezone previously got a silently mis-timezoned event; they now get an explicit error, which should be the canonical behavior, in my opinion.

Verified on stable35 / context_agent 2.9.1, user tz America/New_York on a CEST server: "tomorrow at noon" stores as 12:00 America/New_York (DTSTART:...T160000Z).

…server's Time-related tools treated the timezone parameter as optional and silently dropped it when the model omitted it, so "tomorrow at noon" resolved against server-local or UTC time. The system prompt tried to compensate by asking the model to discover the user's timezone through a find_details_of_current_user tool call first — that costs an extra agent round trip and still leaves the tools unvalidated, so any model that skipped the discovery step produced events at the wrong wall-clock time. Making the timezone a required, pytz-validated parameter on every tool that interprets a date moves the failure to the tool boundary, where a missing or invalid IANA name returns an actionable error to the model instead of silently scheduling six hours off. Injecting the requesting user's actual timezone (OCS /cloud/user) into the system prompt gives the model the correct value up front, keeping the tool-based lookup only as a fallback for profiles without a timezone set. Naive datetime.utcnow() in the free-slot search was replaced with timezone-aware UTC because mixing naive and aware comparisons produced wrong free/busy windows at DST boundaries. Verified end to end against a CEST server with the user's timezone set to America/New_York: the system prompt logs the current time in NY and "tomorrow at noon" is stored as DTSTART:20261007T160000Z (12:00 EDT). Assisted-by: opencode:zai/glm-5.3 Signed-off-by: WSHAPER <42714629+WSHAPER@users.noreply.github.com>

…g to UTC schedule_event built VEVENTs with the ics library, which serializes any aware datetime to UTC. The stored event kept the right instant but lost the timezone it was created in: edits across DST boundaries and anyone reading the raw ICS lost the anchor (issue nextcloud#231, same class as nextcloud#3 — correct data, wrong localization contract). Building the event with icalendar, already a dependency, keeps DTSTART/DTEND as DTSTART;TZID=… exactly as supplied. The organizer's email is optional in the user profile, so the mailto value must tolerate None the way the previous Organizer constructor did. Verified end to end: 'tomorrow at noon' from an America/New_York profile on a CEST server stores as DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:…T120000. Assisted-by: opencode:zai/glm-5.3 Signed-off-by: WSHAPER <42714629+WSHAPER@users.noreply.github.com>

…f requiring it Signed-off-by: WSHAPER <42714629+WSHAPER@users.noreply.github.com>

…pper-level tz check Review round 2: the tz helpers move to all_tools/lib/tz.py (get_timezone, user_timezone, starts_at_timestamp) so calendar and assignments share one implementation, with type hints. Optional parameters carry explicit None defaults everywhere the agent can omit them. The async wrappers for schedule_event/add_task/update_task called the validation on the raw parameter, before the profile-timezone fallback in the sync bodies, so an omitted timezone errored even when the profile had one; the wrappers now only delegate. The scheduled-task starts_at docstring drops the stale find_details_of_current_user hint since the timezone defaults to the profile. Assisted-by: opencode:zai/glm-5.3 Signed-off-by: WSHAPER <42714629+WSHAPER@users.noreply.github.com>

Assisted-by: opencode:zai/glm-5.3 Signed-off-by: WSHAPER <42714629+WSHAPER@users.noreply.github.com>

Signed-off-by: WSHAPER <42714629+WSHAPER@users.noreply.github.com>

Assisted-by: opencode:zai/glm-5.3 Signed-off-by: WSHAPER <42714629+WSHAPER@users.noreply.github.com>

Signed-off-by: WSHAPER <42714629+WSHAPER@users.noreply.github.com>

Assisted-by: opencode:zai/glm-5.3 Signed-off-by: WSHAPER <42714629+WSHAPER@users.noreply.github.com>

WSHAPER · 2026-10-12T14:49:42Z

round 3 @kyteinsky

all-day events now emit DTSTART;VALUE=DATE with dtend on the following day, the assistant chat on my instance ran and read the event back over caldav: DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261013 / DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261014
let GLM 5.3 add a payload test pinning both the all-day and timed shapes, no server needed, if you'd rather keep tests out of this PR I'll drop it
timezone is back at the end of update_task, docstring order matches the args again
prompt is date-only now, tz stated next to the date, time moved to a small get_current_datetime tool (picks up the default-on seeding on re-enable, so no admin step)
the /cloud/user lookup is cached per user with timed_memoize(300), profile changes still propagate within 5 min

kyteinsky

the changes look good, thanks!
a few nits below but all good otherwise.
opened an issue for the flaky tests here: #269

WSHAPER · 2026-10-14T12:12:39Z

@kyteinsky Thanks again for the review!

FYI: I've opened another can of worms that surfaced after inspecting what would be optimal for conversation branching:

In light of that, we'd need to discuss how we'd like to proceed.
To avoid scope creep, I'd like to defer the nitpicks for now.

Signed-off-by: WSHAPER <42714629+WSHAPER@users.noreply.github.com>

WSHAPER requested a review from kyteinsky October 7, 2026 10:49

WSHAPER added 2 commits October 7, 2026 12:55

WSHAPER force-pushed the fix/timezone-handling branch from 45f2db4 to 5b0730a Compare October 7, 2026 10:55

kyteinsky reviewed Oct 7, 2026

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Comment thread ex_app/lib/all_tools/assignments.py Outdated

kyteinsky reviewed Oct 7, 2026

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Comment thread ex_app/lib/agent.py Outdated

refactor(tools): default the timezone to the user's profile instead o…

ee5df89

…f requiring it Signed-off-by: WSHAPER <42714629+WSHAPER@users.noreply.github.com>

kyteinsky reviewed Oct 7, 2026

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kyteinsky reviewed Oct 12, 2026

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WSHAPER added 5 commits October 12, 2026 16:44

fix(tools): emit DATE values for all-day events with next-day DTEND

3b32b00

Assisted-by: opencode:zai/glm-5.3 Signed-off-by: WSHAPER <42714629+WSHAPER@users.noreply.github.com>

refactor(tools): return timezone to its original position in update_task

c535fc4

Signed-off-by: WSHAPER <42714629+WSHAPER@users.noreply.github.com>

feat(agent): get_current_datetime tool, date-only system prompt

722092f

Assisted-by: opencode:zai/glm-5.3 Signed-off-by: WSHAPER <42714629+WSHAPER@users.noreply.github.com>

perf(agent): memoize the user timezone lookup per user

35aa05a

Signed-off-by: WSHAPER <42714629+WSHAPER@users.noreply.github.com>

test(tools): schedule_event payload tests for all-day and timed shapes

e88e3e4

Assisted-by: opencode:zai/glm-5.3 Signed-off-by: WSHAPER <42714629+WSHAPER@users.noreply.github.com>

kyteinsky reviewed Oct 14, 2026

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Comment thread ex_app/lib/all_tools/calendar.py

Comment thread ex_app/lib/agent.py

Comment thread ex_app/lib/agent.py Outdated

Comment thread tests/test_schedule_event_payload.py

docs(tools): state that schedule_event end_date is inclusive

15a86c0

Signed-off-by: WSHAPER <42714629+WSHAPER@users.noreply.github.com>

kyteinsky mentioned this pull request Oct 15, 2026

feat: add pytest as a dev dependency and a github CI workflow #270

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kyteinsky approved these changes Oct 15, 2026

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WSHAPER commented Oct 12, 2026

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WSHAPER commented Oct 7, 2026 •

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WSHAPER commented Oct 14, 2026 •

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