MCP Time Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides current time from internet time servers with timezone support.

Features

• Fetches accurate time from NTP servers (pool.ntp.org)
• Supports custom timezone configuration via environment variable
• Graceful error handling for network issues and invalid timezones
• Compatible with Claude Desktop

Installation

1. Install the required dependencies:

pip install mcp ntplib pytz

2. Install the server in Claude Desktop with your preferred timezone:

mcp install timeserver.py -e TIMEZONE=America/New_York

Locate the claude_desktop_config.json and add (or change as mcp command generates it) to "mcpServers" the "Time Server":

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "Time Server": {
      "command": "/path/to/python",
      "args": [
        "/path/to/timeserver.py"
      ],
      "env": {
        "TIMEZONE": "America/New_York"
      }
    }
  }
}

You can set any valid timezone name from the IANA Time Zone Database. Some common examples:

• 'America/New_York'
• 'Europe/London'
• 'Asia/Tokyo'
• 'US/Pacific'
• 'UTC' (default if no timezone is specified)

Usage

Once installed, you can ask Claude to use the get_current_time tool to fetch and display the current time in your configured timezone. The tool will:

• Connect to pool.ntp.org to get the accurate current time
• Convert the time to your specified timezone (or UTC if none specified)
• Return a formatted string with the current date, time, and timezone

Error Handling

The server handles several types of errors gracefully:

• Network connectivity issues when reaching the NTP server
• Invalid timezone specifications (falls back to UTC)
• General exceptions with informative error messages

Dependencies

• mcp: Model Context Protocol SDK
• ntplib: NTP client library
• pytz: Timezone database and utilities