# UTC Anchor (`utc_time`)

> The current UTC instant, so your agent can fix what “now” means and judge for itself how stale a read is.

- Category: Utilities
- MCP tool: `utc_time`
- REST: `GET /time`
- HTML: https://www.f1ow.com/docs/tools/utc_time

## What it does

Returns the current UTC time in ISO 8601 format. Use it to anchor 'now' — e.g. to judge how stale a generatedAt timestamp or news date is.

## Parameters

None.

## Call it

### cURL

```bash
curl "https://mcp.f1ow.com/v1/time" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $F1OW_API_KEY"
```

### MCP

```json
{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "utc_time",
    "arguments": {}
  }
}
```

### TypeScript

```ts
const res = await fetch("https://mcp.f1ow.com/v1/time", {
  headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.F1OW_API_KEY}` },
});
const data = await res.json(); // the tool's result as JSON, typed in the OpenAPI spec
console.log(data);
```

### Python

```python
import os, requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://mcp.f1ow.com/v1/time",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['F1OW_API_KEY']}"},
)
data = res.json()  # the tool's result as JSON, typed in the OpenAPI spec
print(data)
```

### WebSocket

```jsonc
// wss://mcp.f1ow.com/v1/ws — subprotocol "jsonrpc-2.0", Authorization: Bearer <key>
{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "utc_time",
    "arguments": {}
  }
}

// Or push a fresh result whenever it changes (minimum interval 15 s)
{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 2,
  "method": "subscriptions/subscribe",
  "params": {
    "name": "utc_time",
    "arguments": {},
    "intervalSeconds": 60
  }
}
```

## Sample response

Captured 2026-11-13. The JSON is what REST and WebSocket return and the `structuredContent` of an MCP call (trimmed):

```json
{
  "utc": "2026-11-13T08:05:38.2485036+00:00",
  "generatedAt": "2026-11-13T08:05:38.2496525+00:00"
}
```

Over MCP the text report a model reads comes with it:

```text
2026-11-13T08:05:38.2485036+00:00
```

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