Filed unassigned by an application seat working objectstack-ai/duly#122 (session https://claude.ai/code/session_01SqkTcrxUFci7nqXdbBSe2p). Not graded, no domain:* — routing and priority are the triage seat's. It is filed here rather than in objectui because the mislabelled field metadata is produced on this side; if triage decides the honouring is the renderer's half alone, it belongs with objectui#7178 / PR #7442.
What was measured
A real boot of the Duly app (@objectstack/cli 17.3.0, @objectstack/spec 17.3.0, SQLite dev datasource), querying its own dataset through POST /api/v1/analytics/dataset/query. The measure:
{ name: 'oldest_last_update_at', label: 'Oldest touch',
aggregate: 'min', field: 'last_update_at', // duly_task.last_update_at is Field.datetime
filter: { /* status in (open, in_progress) + a governed-source clause */ } }The response:
{"rows":[{"oldest_last_update_at":"2026-07-04T07:00:00.000Z","untouched_over_30d":3}],
"fields":[{"name":"oldest_last_update_at","type":"number","label":"Oldest touch","format":"relative"},
{"name":"untouched_over_30d","type":"number","label":"Untouched > 30 days"}]}Two things in one line. The value is an ISO string; the field metadata beside it says type: "number". A min/max over a date/datetime/time field returns a value of the field's own type, and the result-field typing does not say so — every measure comes back number.
The consequence, in the browser
format: 'relative' is carried to the client (see the fields[] entry above — it is not dropped). The dashboard metric tile still renders the absolute instant, in both locales, with and without the key:
measure.format |
zh-CN |
en-US |
| absent |
2026年7月4日 07:00 |
Jul 4, 2026, 07:00 AM |
'relative' |
2026年7月4日 07:00 — unchanged |
Jul 4, 2026, 07:00 AM — unchanged |
Measured by adding the key to the real dataset, rebuilding, booting, and reading the tile with Chromium at locale: zh-CN and en-US. Reverted afterwards.
type: "number" looks like the mechanism rather than a cosmetic wrong label: a formatter that branches on the declared type sees a numeric measure holding a non-numeric value, so the date-style branch is never reached and the value falls through to a default date rendering.
Why this is worth a card rather than a shrug
It contradicts a premise of open #14933. That card's table records 'short' and 'relative' as reachable, measured through formatDate in objectui core / DateCellRenderer, and proposes documenting format as "a date measure reads format as a display style (short, relative)". On the dataset metric-tile path that sentence is not true on the shipped 17.3.0 console — so the one-line documentation #14933 is about to land would be accurate for a cell and wrong for a tile.
⚠️ Version caveat, stated rather than hidden. This is the console bundled with @objectstack/cli 17.3.0. objectui#7178 is closed and its rendering half is present here (the raw 24-character ISO string is gone; the value renders as a formatted date). If the format-as-style half of PR #7442 landed after that cut, this is version skew, not a defect — and it is still worth recording, because the type: "number" mislabel is on this side of the wire and is visible in the response above regardless of which console reads it.
What an application seat did about it meanwhile
duly#122 needed "days since the oldest touch" on a tile. Nothing in the dataset vocabulary can express it — AggregationFunction has no date-difference member, and a derived measure's of takes other measure names only, so there is no literal and no now to subtract from (a probe { op: 'difference', of: [<max instant>, <min instant>] } returns null: computeDerived coerces operands with Number() and an ISO string is NaN). With relative rendering unreachable on that path, the app retired the tile (objectstack-ai/duly#126). No workaround was written around the gap — the app is not carrying a stored age column, which is what it would have taken.
Related
objectstack#14933 (the format documentation card whose wording this affects) · objectui#7178 + PR #7442 (the raw-ISO rendering fix, closed) · objectui#7293 (the same tile path dropping values[1..] and options.description) · objectstack-ai/duly#122 / #126 (where this was measured)
Filed unassigned by an application seat working
objectstack-ai/duly#122(sessionhttps://claude.ai/code/session_01SqkTcrxUFci7nqXdbBSe2p). Not graded, nodomain:*— routing and priority are the triage seat's. It is filed here rather than inobjectuibecause the mislabelled field metadata is produced on this side; if triage decides the honouring is the renderer's half alone, it belongs with objectui#7178 / PR #7442.What was measured
A real boot of the Duly app (
@objectstack/cli17.3.0,@objectstack/spec17.3.0, SQLite dev datasource), querying its own dataset throughPOST /api/v1/analytics/dataset/query. The measure:The response:
{"rows":[{"oldest_last_update_at":"2026-07-04T07:00:00.000Z","untouched_over_30d":3}], "fields":[{"name":"oldest_last_update_at","type":"number","label":"Oldest touch","format":"relative"}, {"name":"untouched_over_30d","type":"number","label":"Untouched > 30 days"}]}Two things in one line. The value is an ISO string; the field metadata beside it says
type: "number". Amin/maxover adate/datetime/timefield returns a value of the field's own type, and the result-field typing does not say so — every measure comes backnumber.The consequence, in the browser
format: 'relative'is carried to the client (see thefields[]entry above — it is not dropped). The dashboard metric tile still renders the absolute instant, in both locales, with and without the key:measure.format2026年7月4日 07:00Jul 4, 2026, 07:00 AM'relative'2026年7月4日 07:00— unchangedJul 4, 2026, 07:00 AM— unchangedMeasured by adding the key to the real dataset, rebuilding, booting, and reading the tile with Chromium at
locale: zh-CNanden-US. Reverted afterwards.type: "number"looks like the mechanism rather than a cosmetic wrong label: a formatter that branches on the declared type sees a numeric measure holding a non-numeric value, so the date-style branch is never reached and the value falls through to a default date rendering.Why this is worth a card rather than a shrug
It contradicts a premise of open #14933. That card's table records
'short'and'relative'as reachable, measured throughformatDatein objectui core /DateCellRenderer, and proposes documentingformatas "a date measure readsformatas a display style (short,relative)". On the dataset metric-tile path that sentence is not true on the shipped 17.3.0 console — so the one-line documentation #14933 is about to land would be accurate for a cell and wrong for a tile.@objectstack/cli17.3.0. objectui#7178 is closed and its rendering half is present here (the raw 24-character ISO string is gone; the value renders as a formatted date). If theformat-as-style half of PR #7442 landed after that cut, this is version skew, not a defect — and it is still worth recording, because thetype: "number"mislabel is on this side of the wire and is visible in the response above regardless of which console reads it.What an application seat did about it meanwhile
duly#122needed "days since the oldest touch" on a tile. Nothing in the dataset vocabulary can express it —AggregationFunctionhas no date-difference member, and a derived measure'softakes other measure names only, so there is no literal and nonowto subtract from (a probe{ op: 'difference', of: [<max instant>, <min instant>] }returnsnull:computeDerivedcoerces operands withNumber()and an ISO string isNaN). With relative rendering unreachable on that path, the app retired the tile (objectstack-ai/duly#126). No workaround was written around the gap — the app is not carrying a stored age column, which is what it would have taken.Related
objectstack#14933 (the
formatdocumentation card whose wording this affects) · objectui#7178 + PR #7442 (the raw-ISO rendering fix, closed) · objectui#7293 (the same tile path droppingvalues[1..]andoptions.description) · objectstack-ai/duly#122 / #126 (where this was measured)