Date Variable

The date variable type injects the current date or time into your expansion with configurable formatting.

Basic Usage

- trigger: ":today"
  replace: "{{today}}"
  vars:
    - name: today
      type: date
      params:
        format: "%Y-%m-%d"

Format Specifiers

Format follows strftime conventions:

Specifier	Output	Description
%Y	2026	Year (4 digits)
%y	26	Year (2 digits)
%m	06	Month (zero-padded)
%d	14	Day (zero-padded)
%H	14	Hour (24-hour)
%I	02	Hour (12-hour)
%M	30	Minute
%S	45	Second
%p	PM	AM/PM
%B	June	Full month name
%b	Jun	Abbreviated month name
%A	Sunday	Full weekday name
%a	Sun	Abbreviated weekday name
%j	165	Day of year
%W	24	Week number

Common Format Examples

# ISO date
params:
  format: "%Y-%m-%d"
# Output: 2026-06-14

# Human-readable date
params:
  format: "%B %d, %Y"
# Output: June 14, 2026

# Time only
params:
  format: "%H:%M"
# Output: 14:30

# Full timestamp
params:
  format: "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"
# Output: 2026-06-14 14:30:45

Date with Offset

Add an offset parameter (in seconds) to shift the date:

# Yesterday
- name: yesterday
  type: date
  params:
    format: "%Y-%m-%d"
    offset: -86400

# Tomorrow
- name: tomorrow
  type: date
  params:
    format: "%Y-%m-%d"
    offset: 86400

# Next hour
- name: next_hour
  type: date
  params:
    format: "%H:%M"
    offset: 3600

# One week from now
- name: next_week
  type: date
  params:
    format: "%B %d"
    offset: 604800

Complete Example

- trigger: ":meeting"
  replace: |
    Meeting scheduled: {{date}}
    Tomorrow is: {{tomorrow}}
  vars:
    - name: date
      type: date
      params:
        format: "%A, %B %d at %H:%M"
    - name: tomorrow
      type: date
      params:
        format: "%A, %B %d"
        offset: 86400

What's Next

Learn about the Clipboard Variable for accessing system clipboard content.