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TimeGlyph

TimeGlyph

Crates.io Docs.rs License: Apache-2.0 CI Release Sponsor

Decode any timestamp. Identify the unknown ones. See time itself.

TimeGlyph Lens decoding a timestamp live as the cursor hovers a value on screen
TimeGlyph Lens — hover any number on screen and read its time live, ranked and cited.

Every examination throws raw timestamps at you — a 133801920000000000 buried in an artifact — that you need in human-readable time. timeglyph reads that value every way a system might have written it and reports the results ranked, scored, and cited — honest about the ambiguity instead of guessing one answer.

Mostly you never type them at all: hover the number and read its time live. When you need more, the same engine converts a whole CSV in one pass, or lays a month out as a timezone/DST/leap-aware reference calendar — DST fold/gap days, leap seconds, GPS week, format epochs, and the moon's phase, all flagged. One static Rust binary and a live overlay, from a single install command.

Try it in your browser → · Full documentation →

The playground runs the real engine as WebAssembly, entirely client-side — paste a value, see every ranked, cited reading; nothing leaves the page.

$ timeglyph 1577836800
# readings consistent with 1577836800 (ranked; a raw value is usually underdetermined — not a single verdict):
  [1.00] unix           2020-01-01T00:00:00Z  (Unix time (seconds))
  [0.94] postgres       2000-01-01T00:26:17.8368Z  (PostgreSQL timestamp (µs since 2000))
  [0.67] cocoa          2051-01-01T00:00:00Z  (Cocoa / CFAbsoluteTime (s since 2001))
  [0.67] hfsplus        1953-12-31T00:00:00Z  (Apple HFS+ (s since 1904))
  ...

Install

One command per platform — each installs both the timeglyph CLI and the Lens overlay app.

macOS

brew install --cask securityronin/tap/timeglyph-lens

Windows

winget install SecurityRonin.timeglyph

Debian / Ubuntu

curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/securityronin/timeglyph/setup.deb.sh' | sudo -E bash
sudo apt install timeglyph

You get the CLI on your PATH plus a real launcher for the overlay — a Launchpad/Spotlight app on macOS (Developer-ID-signed and notarized), a Start Menu shortcut on Windows, a desktop entry on Debian/Ubuntu (amd64 and arm64).

CLI only (Cargo, or the portable Linux archive)
cargo install timeglyph

cargo install and the static musl archive ship the CLI alone — no overlay. On macOS you can also take the CLI by itself with brew install securityronin/tap/timeglyph.


What you do with it

TimeGlyph Lens — hover anything, decode time data

The way most people use it: never type a timestamp again. Hover any number on screen and read its time live. An always-on-top overlay follows your cursor and shows timeglyph's ranked readings for the number in the UI element under the pointer — so you never copy a value into a converter. Each row carries its confidence, the weekday, and the public holiday for that date in the chosen zone. Pick any display timezone from the footer.

It comes with the one-command install above, and reads the element under the cursor through the platform accessibility layer — the Accessibility API on macOS, UI Automation on Windows, and AT-SPI on Linux (X11, with assistive technologies enabled).

Can't hover it? Copy it. Some values aren't in the accessibility tree at all — a VM guest window is one opaque framebuffer to the host, and so is a canvas, a rendered image, or a remote-desktop session. Copy the value and press the header 🗐 button: same ranked readings, from the clipboard. It reads once per press — nothing polls your pasteboard — and the clipboard's contents are never drawn as the source caption.

Overlay guide →

Identify an unknown value

timeglyph 1577836800                    # ranked, scored readings across every format
timeglyph identify --json 1577836800    # same, machine-readable
timeglyph --as hex 0060947C58B2D501     # raw bytes only: little/big-endian + packed on-disk
timeglyph --as string 20200101000000Z   # string forms only: ISO / RFC 2822 / ASN.1

Exit codes are pipeline-safe: 0 clear top reading, 2 ambiguous or a sentinel (review needed), 1 error. Render in any timezone with --tz (UTC, a fixed offset, or a DST-correct IANA name); nudge readings toward a source family with --artifact "<hint>".

Decode or encode a known format

timeglyph decode filetime 132223104000000000
timeglyph decode fat 1545691136          # FAT/DOS packed date+time (LOCAL) — one of 45 formats
timeglyph encode unix 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z
timeglyph explain filetime               # a spec card: epoch, tick, tz/leap, range, sentinels, citation
timeglyph list                           # the format registry, with spec citations

Mine artifacts at scale

timeglyph scan < app.log                # find & decode every timestamp in a file (or stdin)
timeglyph carve aabbcc… --from 2015 --to 2026 --json   # carve timestamps at every byte offset
timeglyph csv events.csv                # enrich a CSV with human-readable timestamp columns

Convert in bulk: enrich a whole CSV of timestamps in one pass instead of pasting them into a converter one at a time. carve sweeps a raw blob (a config, a record, a hex selection) for timestamps at every offset — window- and score-thresholded — and exports JSONL, ImHex bookmarks, or Timesketch events.

CSV enrichment →

See time in context — the reference calendar

timeglyph cal                     # this month, with DST/leap/epoch markers
timeglyph cal 2026-11 --tz America/New_York   # DST fold/gap days flagged
timeglyph cal 2026-09-18          # one day in full: week/epoch systems + a moon disc
timeglyph cal 2026 --json         # a whole year, faithful per-day records

cal is a calendar built for temporal analysis: per-day UTC offset and DST fold/gap days, leap-second days and GPS week, ISO week / Julian Day / Unix, timestamp-format epoch and rollover markers, seven alternative calendars (Chinese lunisolar with the 干支 four pillars, plus ROC, Japanese, Buddhist, Hebrew, Islamic, and Persian), and the moon's phase — every value computed and oracle-validated (date, zdump, USNO, IERS, JPL).

The reference calendar →

Use it from an LLM / agent

timeglyph mcp                           # a Model Context Protocol stdio server

mcp exposes identify / decode / explain as MCP tools, so an LLM-driven DFIR workflow gets a cited, reproducible reading instead of a hallucinated epoch conversion.

Every reading is scored and checked against an independent oracle — each names the spec it assumes, and correctness is validated against primary-spec worked examples and the MIT time_decode tool, with calendar/astronomy values cross-checked against date, zdump, USNO, IERS, and JPL. So a reading on your weird timestamp is evidence you can cite, not a guess. See validation.


45 formats, every reading cited

timeglyph decodes and auto-identifies 45 registered formats plus the self-describing string forms:

  • Epoch integers & floats — Unix (s/ms/µs/ns and double), FILETIME (incl. Active Directory / LDAP), WebKit/Chrome, Cocoa / CFAbsoluteTime (integer, signed double, iOS-11 ns), Apple HFS+/HFS, .NET ticks, OLE automation, Excel-1904, PostgreSQL, Mozilla PRTime, SQLite Julian day, DHCPv6, Modified Julian Day
  • Embedded IDs — KSUID, ULID, UUIDv1 / v6 / v7, MongoDB ObjectId, GMail message IDs, and Snowflake-class IDs (Twitter/X, Discord, Mastodon, LinkedIn, TikTok, Sonyflake)
  • Packed & mobile/broadcast — FAT/DOS and exFAT date-time words, 128-bit SYSTEMTIME structs, Microsoft DTTM, BCD, GSM 7-byte semi-octet, Nokia, DVR, Motorola, Symantec, and SQL Server DATETIME
  • Strings — ISO 8601 / RFC 3339, RFC 2822 email dates, EXIF, ASN.1 GeneralizedTime & UTCTime
  • Leap-aware scales (--features leap) — GPS, TAI64, NTP, kept separate from the POSIX spine

Each reading is scored on window membership, granularity, magnitude, byte-width, endianness, artifact context, and neighbour monotonicity — so the ranking reflects the evidence, not format popularity. (Validated against an independent oracle — see the trust note above and validation.)


Why another converter?

Good ones exist (time_decode, MIT; DCode, proprietary). timeglyph is a single static Rust binary built on a rigorous, cited model where a reading is evidence, not a verdict: a POSIX-correct internal spine (never mislabelled UTC), the leap-second family kept separate, and ambiguity as first-class, scored output. Calendar and timezone math is reused (jiff), never reinvented. See the design decisions.


Point it at the timestamp you're stuck on.cargo install timeglyph, or try it in your browser — no install, nothing leaves the page.


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About

Decode, identify & encode forensic timestamps — every reading ranked, scored, and cited — plus a timezone/DST/leap-aware reference calendar for interpreting them (DST folds, leap seconds, GPS week, format epochs, moon phase). Rust CLI + library, WASM playground, and a live hover-to-decode overlay.

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