nika:date

A missing required arg is a nika check finding before anything runs; the vocabulary below comes from the binary itself (nika catalog --tools --json), not from prose.

op*

stringnow | add | subtract | format | parse | diff

tz

stringIANA timezone (now · default UTC)

base

stringISO 8601 base (add/subtract)

duration

stringISO 8601 span like PT1h (add/subtract)

input

stringthe timestamp to render (format) or the text to read (parse)

format

stringstrftime grammar e.g. %Y-%m-%d (format/parse)

start

stringISO 8601 (diff)

end

stringISO 8601 (diff)

unit

stringseconds (default) | milliseconds | minutes | hours | days | weeks (diff)

1nika: v12workflow:3  id: the-review-window4  description: "timestamp arithmetic without a shell date incantation"5​6tasks:7  deadline:8    ◆invoke:9      tool: "nika:date"10      args:11        op: add12        base: "2026-07-01T09:00:00Z"13        duration: "7d"14​15  days_left:16    with:17      deadline: ${{ tasks.deadline.output }}18    ◆invoke:19      tool: "nika:date"20      args:21        op: diff22        start: "2026-07-01T09:00:00Z"23        end: "${{ with.deadline }}"24        unit: days25​26outputs:27  deadline: ${{ tasks.deadline.output }}

a complete file, nika check green; the drift gate re-validates this copy against the schema on every test run. open it in the playground →

pure JSON/data transforms, no I/O.

• nika:convert
• nika:date
• nika:decide
• nika:hash
• nika:jq
• nika:json_diff
• nika:json_merge_patch
• nika:uuid
• nika:validate