Date Difference Skill
The tool
Let your agent measure the gap between two dates. Call it as an MCP tool to return the difference in days, months and years.
Once your client is connected to the VerveKit MCP server, this appears in its tool list as DateDifferenceSkill. It is read-only and open-world: it fetches, it never mutates anything on your side, so most clients will call it without asking you to confirm.
{
"name": "DateDifferenceSkill",
"arguments": {
"start": "2022-01-01",
"end": "2024-08-31"
}
}What that looks like in a conversation
You don't name the tool — the model picks it. Asking about 2022-01-01 in the terms this source covers is enough for it to reach for DateDifferenceSkill on its own.
Connecting
One server URL covers every skill in the catalog, including this one. Authorization is OAuth — the client opens a browser once and there is no key to paste into a config file.
{
"mcpServers": {
"vervekit": {
"url": "https://api.vervekit.com/v1/mcp"
}
}
}https://api.vervekit.com/v1/mcpPer-client setup — Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, ChatGPT — is on the MCP setup page.
Arguments
These are the properties on the tool's inputSchema, so a well-behaved client validates them before the call is made.
| Argument | Type | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
startRequired | string | 2022-01-01 | The start date for calculating the difference (format: YYYY-MM-DD) |
endRequired | string | 2024-08-31 | The end date for calculating the difference (format: YYYY-MM-DD) |
What the model gets back
The result carries a structuredContent object matching the tool's declared outputSchema, so a client can read fields without parsing prose. status is "ok" on success and error is null; a null field means the value wasn't available for that input, not that the call failed.
{
"status": "ok",
"error": null,
"data": {
"minutes": 524160,
"hours": 8736,
"days": 364,
"weeks": 52,
"months": 11,
"years": 0,
"start": {
"date": "2022-01-01",
"day": "Saturday",
"month": "January",
"year": "2022",
"words": "Saturday, January 1st 2022"
},
"end": {
"date": "2022-12-31",
"day": "Saturday",
"month": "December",
"year": "2022",
"words": "Saturday, December 31st 2022"
}
}
}Fields
| Field | Type | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
minutes | number | 524160 | Total number of minutes between start and end dates |
hours | number | 8736 | Total number of hours between start and end dates |
days | number | 364 | Total number of days between start and end dates |
weeks | number | 52 | Total number of weeks between start and end dates |
months | number | 11 | Total number of months between start and end dates |
years | number | 0 | Total number of years between start and end dates |
start | object | {…} | |
start.date | string | 2022-01-01 | Formatted start date in YYYY-MM-DD format |
start.dayPremium | string | Saturday | Day of week name for the start date |
start.monthPremium | string | January | Month name for the start date |
start.year | string | 2022 | Year for the start date |
start.wordsPremium | string | Saturday, January 1st 2022 | Human-readable formatted start date with day and month |
end | object | {…} | |
end.date | string | 2022-12-31 | Formatted end date in YYYY-MM-DD format |
end.dayPremium | string | Saturday | Day of week name for the end date |
end.monthPremium | string | December | Month name for the end date |
end.year | string | 2022 | Year for the end date |
end.wordsPremium | string | Saturday, December 31st 2022 | Human-readable formatted end date with day and month |
Failure modes
Errors come back as tool errors with a sentence the model can act on, not a bare status code.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
400 / 422 | The arguments didn't validate. The message names the offending one. |
401 | The OAuth session is invalid or expired — reconnect the server. |
403 | Out of credits. Not a bad key — the month's allowance is spent. |
404 | This skill isn't part of VerveKit. Check the catalog. |
429 | Brief rate limit. Retrying after a moment succeeds. |
Other ways to use Date Difference Skill
Set up Date Difference Skill on VerveKit, or reach the same source a different way. Your VerveKit account and credits work on all of them — one key, one balance.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to tell the agent to use DateDifferenceSkill?
No. The tool's name and description are in the model's context once the server is connected, so it selects the tool when the question calls for it. Naming it explicitly works too and is useful when you want to force the call.
Does connecting the server expose every tool at once?
Yes — one connection lists the whole VerveKit catalog. Clients with a tool budget can usually filter the list; the credit cost is per call, so an unused tool costs nothing.
What does a call cost?
1 credit each time the tool actually runs. A model that reasons about the tool without calling it costs nothing.
Is there a REST version of this?
Yes — the same source is available as a plain HTTPS endpoint on APIVerve, linked above. Same data, same credits, same account.