How to use it
Three steps to the time in both worlds. No AI, no key and no network needed.
1 Ask what time it is, in either world.
Say "what time is it".
D47 gives the time in the galactic calendar and in your own, with no AI configured.
2 Ask for the date or the day.
Say "what's the date" or "what day is it".
D47 answers with the galactic date and your own date together.
! The galactic date reads the same for everyone.
Read the galactic date as D47 says it, whatever your computer shows.
It reads as, for example, 17 August 3312, however your computer writes dates.
Why it works this way
What time it is in both worlds at once.
1 Two dates. One instant.
The details
What time it is, in both worlds at once. Part of every run.
Ask for it
“what’s the date” “what time is it” “what day is it”
None of these needs an AI configured.
Two clocks, one instant
Elite Dangerous runs 1286 years ahead, so today is also a date in 3312. That is arithmetic over the same moment rather than a second clock — one instant presented twice, which is why the two can never drift out of step with each other.
21:04 on 17 August 3312 out here, and 21:04 on Monday 17 August 2026 where you are.
The galactic date is written the same way for everybody, because the galaxy’s calendar is not a regional format and a date that reads as 08/17 in one place and 17/08 in another reads as two different days. Your own clock is written the way your computer writes dates.
Directive 47 answers this itself. No turn is taken, no provider is needed, and nothing is spent — it works with no key configured and no network. Both dates also go into the block of live game state that goes with every conversation, already worked out, so the core can mention the date without asking for it. It is never asked to add 1286 to anything: that is arithmetic, and a model doing arithmetic in prose is wrong occasionally and confidently.
When timers and alarms are switched on, the same block also lists what is running.
The tool surface, for contributors
say_the_time
The date and time in both worlds. Answered by D47 itself rather than by the model: no turn, no provider, no tokens.
{"type":"object","properties":{},"required":[],"additionalProperties":false}
Protected, which here is about cost as much as about safety: the advertised tool surface is paid for on every turn whether or not anybody asks the time, and this question does not need the model at all. The keyword router reaches it; the model never sees it.