Dates are half-localized on a zh-CN session — past-relative forms translate, future-relative forms and absolute timestamps stay en-US, on the same row

[baozhoutao]

Symptom

On a zh-CN session, the date formatter localizes only some of its branches. Both forms appear on the same rendered rows:

Localized: 逾期 6 天 · 创建于 1天前 · 刚刚 · 3分钟前 · 13分钟前 · 47秒钟前
Not localized: In 2 days · In 3 days · In 5 days · 6 days ago — and absolute timestamps render en-US: 8/11/2026 12:00 am, 8/4/2026 12:00 am

So a single task row can show 逾期 6 天 in one column and In 3 days in the next.

This is not a missing translation and not a raw key: the surrounding chrome and every field label on those pages are fully Chinese (标题/项目/负责人/状态/优先级/截止日期/进度), and a regex scan for raw dotted translation keys across 20+ captured surfaces returned zero hits.

Reproduction

1. Boot the showcase: node packages/cli/bin/run.js dev -a dist/objectstack.json --seed-admin -d file:/tmp/x.db -p <port>
2. Open http://localhost:<port>/_console/, sign in as admin@objectos.ai / admin123 (use localhost, not 127.0.0.1).
3. Set localStorage['objectui-locale'] = 'zh' and reload. Note: language-only 'zh' — 'zh-CN' is rejected by isKnownLanguage().
4. Open /_console/apps/com.example.showcase/showcase_task and /_console/apps/com.example.showcase/page/showcase_task_all_views.

Expected every relative and absolute date renders in zh-CN.
Actual the past-relative branch localizes; the future-relative branch and Intl.DateTimeFormat output do not.

Reproduced in three independent browser sessions in one run, and previously observed on objectstack-ai/objectstack#7640.

Suspected cause

The formatter appears to thread the active locale into the past-relative branch only, leaving the future-relative branch and the absolute Intl.DateTimeFormat calls on the default locale. 6 days ago also appearing untranslated on the start_date/end_date columns suggests more than one call site rather than a single missing argument.

Source

Found by the platform checklist retest of i18n.studio-follows-app-locale clause 2 (framework 279ee48a, console pin 6314e87f2d49). Recorded in prose on objectstack-ai/objectstack#7640 but never extracted into a card; a search for an existing card found none.

[yinlianghui]

CLAIM — session session_017Qqyix2QcnpUC9XeYVDzx3, branch claude/issue-4468-date-locale-census.

Ruling (delegated authority; open veto window): measurement-first census, then one-channel convergence. The card's own evidence says MULTIPLE call sites (the same row shows both forms; 6 days ago untranslated on date columns while 逾期 6 天 localizes next to it), so:

1. Census first: find every date-formatting site the affected surfaces use (relative past, relative future, absolute Intl.DateTimeFormat) — expected homes: the fields package's date/datetime display renderers plus any shared date util. For each site: which locale (if any) it threads today. The census is a deliverable in the PR body.
2. One resolver: a single locale-aware date-formatting channel that every branch threads the ACTIVE locale through — no branch left on the default. Measure what locale token the i18n layer holds ('zh' — the card notes zh-CN is rejected by isKnownLanguage()) vs what Intl needs (BCP-47; 'zh' is valid — verify the mapping is one place, not per-site). If a shared relative-time util already exists with the locale threaded into only one branch, complete it; if sites hand-roll, converge them onto the one channel — but measure the blast radius before moving any call site and report if a site's output format is pinned by existing tests.
3. Red-first per measured branch: zh session → future-relative renders zh (3 天后-class, per the pack's conventions), absolute timestamps render zh-CN format — each captured verbatim pre-fix (In 3 days, 8/11/2026 12:00 am). Must-not-change (green both sides): en byte-identical on every branch; the already-localized past-relative branch unchanged; the 刚刚/seconds forms unchanged.

Grading: patch per touched package (.d.ts measured; minor only if a public surface grows). Never major.

Surface (mutual exclusion): the measured date-formatting sites (expected packages/fields/** + shared date utils in packages/core or packages/i18n) + tests + changesets. ⛔ NOT: core/utils/chart-series.ts (in-flight #4497 continuation), auth/app-shell chrome (in-flight #4467), console/organizations/manage/** (in-flight #4475), plugin-grid/plugin-list (in-flight #4501), content/docs/releases/. If the census points into a ⛔ surface, report instead of editing.

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Generated by Claude Code

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Generated by Claude Code