feat: add timestamp to context header

Display current date/time in context header for both terminal (Color)
and markdown formatters. Shows format like "2026-01-04 2:46am EST".

Also bumps version to 8.5.9.

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

.claude-plugin/marketplace.json

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
   "plugins": [
     {
       "name": "claude-mem",
-      "version": "8.5.8",
+      "version": "8.5.9",
       "source": "./plugin",
       "description": "Persistent memory system for Claude Code - context compression across sessions"
     }

package.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "claude-mem",
-  "version": "8.5.8",
+  "version": "8.5.9",
   "description": "Memory compression system for Claude Code - persist context across sessions",
   "keywords": [
     "claude",

plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "claude-mem",
-  "version": "8.5.8",
+  "version": "8.5.9",
   "description": "Persistent memory system for Claude Code - seamlessly preserve context across sessions",
   "author": {
     "name": "Alex Newman"

plugin/package.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "claude-mem-plugin",
-  "version": "8.5.7",
+  "version": "8.5.9",
   "private": true,
   "description": "Runtime dependencies for claude-mem bundled hooks",
   "type": "module",

src/services/context/formatters/ColorFormatter.ts

@@ -14,13 +14,28 @@ import { colors } from '../types.js';
 import { ModeManager } from '../../domain/ModeManager.js';
 import { formatObservationTokenDisplay } from '../TokenCalculator.js';
 
+/**
+ * Format current date/time for header display
+ */
+function formatHeaderDateTime(): string {
+  const now = new Date();
+  const date = now.toLocaleDateString('en-CA'); // YYYY-MM-DD format
+  const time = now.toLocaleTimeString('en-US', {
+    hour: 'numeric',
+    minute: '2-digit',
+    hour12: true
+  }).toLowerCase().replace(' ', '');
+  const tz = now.toLocaleTimeString('en-US', { timeZoneName: 'short' }).split(' ').pop();
+  return `${date} ${time} ${tz}`;
+}
+
 /**
  * Render colored header
  */
 export function renderColorHeader(project: string): string[] {
   return [
     '',
-    `${colors.bright}${colors.cyan}[${project}] recent context${colors.reset}`,
+    `${colors.bright}${colors.cyan}[${project}] recent context, ${formatHeaderDateTime()}${colors.reset}`,
     `${colors.gray}${'─'.repeat(60)}${colors.reset}`,
     ''
   ];
@@ -219,5 +234,5 @@ export function renderColorFooter(totalDiscoveryTokens: number, totalReadTokens:
  * Render colored empty state
  */
 export function renderColorEmptyState(project: string): string {
-  return `\n${colors.bright}${colors.cyan}[${project}] recent context${colors.reset}\n${colors.gray}${'─'.repeat(60)}${colors.reset}\n\n${colors.dim}No previous sessions found for this project yet.${colors.reset}\n`;
+  return `\n${colors.bright}${colors.cyan}[${project}] recent context, ${formatHeaderDateTime()}${colors.reset}\n${colors.gray}${'─'.repeat(60)}${colors.reset}\n\n${colors.dim}No previous sessions found for this project yet.${colors.reset}\n`;
 }

src/services/context/formatters/MarkdownFormatter.ts

@@ -14,12 +14,27 @@ import type {
 import { ModeManager } from '../../domain/ModeManager.js';
 import { formatObservationTokenDisplay } from '../TokenCalculator.js';
 
+/**
+ * Format current date/time for header display
+ */
+function formatHeaderDateTime(): string {
+  const now = new Date();
+  const date = now.toLocaleDateString('en-CA'); // YYYY-MM-DD format
+  const time = now.toLocaleTimeString('en-US', {
+    hour: 'numeric',
+    minute: '2-digit',
+    hour12: true
+  }).toLowerCase().replace(' ', '');
+  const tz = now.toLocaleTimeString('en-US', { timeZoneName: 'short' }).split(' ').pop();
+  return `${date} ${time} ${tz}`;
+}
+
 /**
  * Render markdown header
  */
 export function renderMarkdownHeader(project: string): string[] {
   return [
-    `# [${project}] recent context`,
+    `# [${project}] recent context, ${formatHeaderDateTime()}`,
     ''
   ];
 }
@@ -222,5 +237,5 @@ export function renderMarkdownFooter(totalDiscoveryTokens: number, totalReadToke
  * Render markdown empty state
  */
 export function renderMarkdownEmptyState(project: string): string {
-  return `# [${project}] recent context\n\nNo previous sessions found for this project yet.`;
+  return `# [${project}] recent context, ${formatHeaderDateTime()}\n\nNo previous sessions found for this project yet.`;
 }

tests/context/formatters/markdown-formatter.test.ts

@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ describe('MarkdownFormatter', () => {
       const result = renderMarkdownHeader('my-project');
 
       expect(result).toHaveLength(2);
-      expect(result[0]).toBe('# [my-project] recent context');
+      expect(result[0]).toMatch(/^# \[my-project\] recent context, \d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2} \d{1,2}:\d{2}[ap]m [A-Z]{3,4}$/);
       expect(result[1]).toBe('');
     });
 
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ describe('MarkdownFormatter', () => {
     it('should handle empty project name', () => {
       const result = renderMarkdownHeader('');
 
-      expect(result[0]).toBe('# [] recent context');
+      expect(result[0]).toMatch(/^# \[\] recent context, \d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2} \d{1,2}:\d{2}[ap]m [A-Z]{3,4}$/);
     });
   });