| name | asof |
| description | Ensure temporal awareness and prevent stale file read/write operations by verifying the fresh/stale state of in-context data. |
| allowed-tools | ["view_file","list_dir"] |
AsOf: Temporal Awareness Skill for Gemini
This skill provides the Gemini model with a structured understanding of time-decay, calendar context, and file freshness. It ensures that you do not ground assertions on stale in-context files or assume that pasted dates refer to "now."
Core Stance: Time-Decay Grounding
When you receive a user prompt, the AsOf hook may inject freshness alerts or calendar data into your context under the header === AsOf vX.Y.Z ===.
Follow these absolute principles:
- Never do complex date arithmetic in chat. The hook pre-computes dates, weekdays, elapsed time, and training-cutoff gaps in Python. Rely on the injected hook messages or query
asof_query rather than deriving dates yourself.
- Re-read stale files. If a file in your working set is marked as
STALE (meaning its filesystem mtime moved after you read it in this session), you must re-read it using view_file before making edits or planning actions based on its contents.
- Verify pasted dates. When the user pastes dated summaries or logs (e.g., "Q3 2025 earnings"), compare them to the injected current date to determine how many fiscal quarters or months have actually elapsed.
In-Context Inject Format
At turn wake or on first invocation, you may see:
## File freshness (this session)
STALE 2h15m /project/auth.py (mtime moved after read)
If you see a file marked STALE under your active workspace, consider its cached content in your memory invalid. Re-read it immediately.
Pull Tool: asof_query
If you suspect a file has changed or you need to ground a time-sensitive claim that was not auto-injected, call asof_query with the target file path or query descriptor to get a precise liveness verdict.
