New 'Time format' setting in /config

A new Time format setting in /config controls whether UI clocks use 12-hour, 24-hour, UTC or a custom pattern.

Use it nowTier: how much it should matter to you

5Useful: my rating, 1 to 5

2Signal: worth watching, 1 to 5

SettingsArea: what it touches

New FeaturesKind: in v2.1.257, 01 Sep 26

What probably matters to youSection of the release

A new timeFormat setting is available in /config under "Time format," controlling the clock format used for times shown in the UI. Options are auto (default, follows the locale), 12-hour, 24-hour, 24-hour-utc (e.g. 18:05Z), or a strftime pattern. Changing it fires tengu_time_format_setting_changed telemetry.

Read from

Names in the bundle/configtimeFormat24-hour-utc

What the documentation says

Documented inclaude-code/settings-reference

Since it was published

The entry above is what we published on the day. These lines were added later, as Anthropic's own pages caught up, and they sit beside the original rather than replacing it.

Confirmed since 28 Sep 2026 Anthropic's documentation has since written up timeFormat, on All settings. | [`timeFormat`](#timeformat) | Show the times in the interface on a 12-hour or 24-hour clock, in UTC, or with a strftime pattern | Interface and terminal | Any file | settings-reference see the edit

Added since 11 Sep 2026 A small documentation edit on Telemetry and egress touched a line naming /config after this was published. With `disableEssentialTelemetry`, `disableNonessentialTelemetry`, `disableNonessentialServices`, and `disableAutoUpdates` all set to `true`, the desktop application makes **no outbound connections to Anthropic-operated hosts at runtime**. … third-party/claude-desktop/telemetry see the edit

Confirmed since 10 Sep 2026 Anthropic's documentation has since written up /config, on MCP, plugins, skills, and hooks. | `.mcp.json` | MCP servers bundled with this plugin. A JSON object keyed by server name: `{"mcpServers": {"<name>": {"type": "http", "url": "...", "oauth": true}}}`. A remote entry uses `type` (`http` or `sse`), not `transport`, and suppo… third-party/claude-desktop/extensions see the edit

How sure we are

Two sources agreeTwo things we can check say the same as this entry.

Anthropic's documentation agreesAnthropic's documentation has since written up /config, on MCP, plugins, skills, and hooks.

Anthropic's release notes agreeAdded "Time format" (timeFormat) and timeZone settings: 12-hour, 24-hour, 24-hour UTC, or a strftime pattern for the turn-end clock and…

The name it cites is new in this buildNew in this build: timeFormat

See this entry in the whole of v2.1.257 →

The build it came inv2.1.257

1 Sep 2026 · 505 entries, this one is #118.

Use it now45
You'll notice231
Nothing to try yet71
Under the hood158

Either side of it

v2.1.252Older
v2.1.258Newer

Open the release →

Names in this entry

slash/config
Open the Settings interface to adjust theme, model, output style, and other preferences. Pass one or more key=value pairs to set a setting directly without opening the interface, for example /config thinking=false, /config theme=dark, or /config model=sonnet. The key=value form also works in non-interactive mode (-p) and from the Claude mobile app via Remote Control. The key=value form can't turn on a setting that needs your confirmation in the panel, such as autoContinueAtUsageLimit, though it can turn one off. Run /config --help to list the keys it accepts. Alias: /settings
settingtimeFormat
Show the times in the interface on a 12-hour or 24-hour clock, in UTC, or with a strftime pattern
settingauto
You can set the auto-compact window at launch with --autocompact, using auto or 100k to 1M.
flagtengu_time_format_setting_changed
A new Time format setting in /config controls whether UI clocks use 12-hour, 24-hour, UTC or a custom pattern.

Anthropic's note

Upstream's own release notes for v2.1.257 name something this entry names, so the two are probably about the same change. Probably: the pairing is made on a shared name rather than on the words around it.

Added "Time format" (timeFormat) and timeZone settings: 12-hour, 24-hour, 24-hour UTC, or a strftime pattern for the turn-end clock and transcript-view timestamps

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