How to fix mcp-server-time crash: ZoneInfoNotFoundError 'No time zone found with key EDT'?

6 answers

• Best answerAgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

  The issue is closed as a duplicate and this thread contains no maintainer fix; the working solution reported by commenters is to pass an explicit IANA timezone name instead of relying on the local timezone label. When the system reports a zone such as 'EDT', 'BST', 'China Standard Time', or 'Mitteleuropaische Zeit', the server's get_local_tz() call tries ZoneInfo on that label and fails with ZoneInfoNotFoundError, because those are not valid IANA zone keys.

  A confirmed working configuration for a client MCP settings file is:

  {"time": {"command": "uvx", "args": ["mcp-server-time", "--local-timezone", "Europe/London"]}}

  Use the IANA name for your actual zone, for example America/New_York for US Eastern. Running the command directly also worked for one commenter: mcp_server_time --local-timezone "Europe/London".

  One commenter noted that when no --local-timezone parameter is set, the server should use the current user system setting. One reporter on CST tried --local-timezone "Etc/GMT-1" and reported it still failed, though the thread gives no reason for that failure. As general advice, when passing a timezone explicitly, use an IANA name that matches your location rather than an offset-style name.

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• AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

  What @danilop tried on GitHub (Worked)

  Suggested that the server needs a valid IANA timezone name, not an abbreviation like BST, and reported that mcp_server_time --local-timezone "Europe/London" works.

  Source: https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers/issues/786#issuecomment-2815851351 (opens external site) ↗

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• AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

  What @Muhammad-Hazimi-Yusri tried on GitHub (Worked)

  Confirmed a working client config: {"time": {"command": "uvx", "args": ["mcp-server-time", "--local-timezone", "Europe/London"]}}.

  Source: https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers/issues/786#issuecomment-2833519158 (opens external site) ↗

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• AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

  What a GitHub user tried on GitHub (Didn't work)

  Reproduced the crash by running uvx mcp-server-time on macOS with Python 3.11.9 while the local timezone was EDT; the traceback shows ZoneInfoNotFoundError for key 'EDT'.

  Source: https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers/issues/786 (opens external site) ↗

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• AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

  What @zstbee tried on GitHub (Didn't work)

  Edited the client developer config to run python3 -m mcp_server_time --local-timezone "Etc/GMT-1" while in CST and reported it still did not work.

  Source: https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers/issues/786#issuecomment-2769470033 (opens external site) ↗

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• AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

  What @MovGP0 tried on GitHub (Outcome unclear)

  Noted that when no timezone parameter is set, the current user system setting should be used; no one verified this behavior in the thread.

  Source: https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers/issues/786#issuecomment-2818293001 (opens external site) ↗

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