From 6f2d563b3da17b17556bbeb43a967abc3e725568 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Dave <david.els1@outlook.com>
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2026 10:57:55 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] feat(time): relative timestamp formatting

---
 src/lib/time/relative.test.ts | 47 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 src/lib/time/relative.ts      | 50 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 97 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 src/lib/time/relative.test.ts
 create mode 100644 src/lib/time/relative.ts

diff --git a/src/lib/time/relative.test.ts b/src/lib/time/relative.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c952773
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/lib/time/relative.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+import { describe, it, expect } from "vitest";
+import { relativeTime } from "@/lib/time/relative";
+
+const now = new Date("2026-09-16T12:00:00Z");
+
+describe("relativeTime", () => {
+  it("returns an empty string for a missing value", () => {
+    expect(relativeTime("", now)).toBe("");
+  });
+
+  it("says just now under a minute", () => {
+    expect(relativeTime("2026-09-16 11:59:30.000Z", now)).toBe("just now");
+  });
+
+  it("counts minutes", () => {
+    expect(relativeTime("2026-09-16 11:59:00.000Z", now)).toBe("1 minute ago");
+    expect(relativeTime("2026-09-16 11:45:00.000Z", now)).toBe("15 minutes ago");
+  });
+
+  it("counts hours", () => {
+    expect(relativeTime("2026-09-16 11:00:00.000Z", now)).toBe("1 hour ago");
+    expect(relativeTime("2026-09-16 07:00:00.000Z", now)).toBe("5 hours ago");
+  });
+
+  it("says yesterday", () => {
+    expect(relativeTime("2026-09-15 08:00:00.000Z", now)).toBe("yesterday");
+  });
+
+  it("counts days up to a week", () => {
+    expect(relativeTime("2026-09-12 12:00:00.000Z", now)).toBe("4 days ago");
+  });
+
+  it("falls back to a date beyond a week", () => {
+    expect(relativeTime("2026-09-01 12:00:00.000Z", now)).toBe("1 Sep");
+  });
+
+  it("includes the year for another year", () => {
+    expect(relativeTime("2025-12-20 12:00:00.000Z", now)).toBe("20 Dec 2025");
+  });
+
+  it("does not produce negative times for a near-future timestamp", () => {
+    // Clock skew between the PocketBase host and the browser can put a
+    // just-written record a few seconds in the future. "in -3 seconds" is
+    // worse than a small lie.
+    expect(relativeTime("2026-09-16 12:00:05.000Z", now)).toBe("just now");
+  });
+});
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/lib/time/relative.ts b/src/lib/time/relative.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..41be5de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/lib/time/relative.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+/**
+ * Human-readable elapsed time.
+ *
+ * PocketBase returns timestamps as "2026-09-16 12:00:00.000Z" — a space, not
+ * the "T" that Date.parse wants everywhere. Normalise before parsing or this
+ * silently returns NaN on some engines.
+ */
+
+const MONTHS = [
+  "Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun",
+  "Jul", "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov", "Dec",
+];
+
+function parse(value: string): Date {
+  return new Date(value.replace(" ", "T"));
+}
+
+function plural(count: number, unit: string): string {
+  return `${count} ${unit}${count === 1 ? "" : "s"} ago`;
+}
+
+export function relativeTime(value: string, now: Date = new Date()): string {
+  if (!value) return "";
+
+  const then = parse(value);
+  if (Number.isNaN(then.getTime())) return "";
+
+  const seconds = Math.round((now.getTime() - then.getTime()) / 1000);
+
+  // Clamp small negatives: clock skew between the database host and here can
+  // put a record a few seconds in the future.
+  if (seconds < 60) return "just now";
+
+  const minutes = Math.floor(seconds / 60);
+  if (minutes < 60) return plural(minutes, "minute");
+
+  const hours = Math.floor(minutes / 60);
+  if (hours < 24) return plural(hours, "hour");
+
+  const days = Math.floor(hours / 24);
+  if (days === 1) return "yesterday";
+  if (days < 7) return plural(days, "day");
+
+  const day = then.getUTCDate();
+  const month = MONTHS[then.getUTCMonth()];
+  const year = then.getUTCFullYear();
+
+  if (year !== now.getUTCFullYear()) return `${day} ${month} ${year}`;
+  return `${day} ${month}`;
+}
\ No newline at end of file