From 6cdfd346fafa1ed15ab695a1b044d703cd88139e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Charlie Tonneslan <cst0520@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 17 May 2026 14:06:34 -0400
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] tau-bot: skip times the author marked as local

"10:51 local time" means whatever the reader's clock says, not the
author's, so converting it to their timezone is misleading. Add
"local" / "local time" to the matcher and drop those matches up
front so Tau-bot stays quiet.

Closes #533.

Signed-off-by: Charlie Tonneslan <cst0520@gmail.com>
---
 src/scripts/timezone.js      | 11 +++++++++--
 src/scripts/timezone.test.js | 15 ++++++++++++++-
 2 files changed, 23 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/scripts/timezone.js b/src/scripts/timezone.js
index 6f19d315..22562bd5 100644
--- a/src/scripts/timezone.js
+++ b/src/scripts/timezone.js
@@ -31,7 +31,12 @@ const TIMEZONES = {
 };
 
 const matcher =
-  /(\d{1,2}:\d{2}\s?(am|pm)?)\s?(((ak|a|c|e|m|p)(s|d)?t)|:(eastern|central|mountain|pacific)-time-zone:)?/i;
+  /(\d{1,2}:\d{2}\s?(am|pm)?)\s?(local(?:\s+time)?|((ak|a|c|e|m|p)(s|d)?t)|:(eastern|central|mountain|pacific)-time-zone:)?/i;
+
+// "local time" means whatever the reader's clock says, not the author's, so
+// there's nothing to convert. Mark those matches so we drop them up front.
+const isLocalTimeMatch = (timezone) =>
+  typeof timezone === "string" && /^local/i.test(timezone);
 
 module.exports = (app) => {
   helpMessage.registerNonInteractive(
@@ -56,7 +61,9 @@ module.exports = (app) => {
     let m = null;
     let ampm = null;
 
-    const matches = [...text.matchAll(RegExp(matcher, "gi"))];
+    const matches = [...text.matchAll(RegExp(matcher, "gi"))].filter(
+      ([, , , timezone]) => !isLocalTimeMatch(timezone),
+    );
 
     // If there aren't any matches, that can be because this was crossposted.
     // We don't want to have the bot respond to those because the authorship of
diff --git a/src/scripts/timezone.test.js b/src/scripts/timezone.test.js
index e1439c98..0351b23d 100644
--- a/src/scripts/timezone.test.js
+++ b/src/scripts/timezone.test.js
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ describe("Handy Tau-bot timezone conversions", () => {
     timezone(app);
 
     expect(app.message).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
-      /(\d{1,2}:\d{2}\s?(am|pm)?)\s?(((ak|a|c|e|m|p)(s|d)?t)|:(eastern|central|mountain|pacific)-time-zone:)?/i,
+      /(\d{1,2}:\d{2}\s?(am|pm)?)\s?(local(?:\s+time)?|((ak|a|c|e|m|p)(s|d)?t)|:(eastern|central|mountain|pacific)-time-zone:)?/i,
       expect.any(Function),
     );
   });
@@ -242,6 +242,19 @@ describe("Handy Tau-bot timezone conversions", () => {
       expect(slack.postEphemeralMessage).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
     });
 
+    it("does not respond when the author marks the time as local", async () => {
+      // "local time" / "local" mean "whatever the reader's clock says", so
+      // there's nothing to translate. Tracked at #533.
+      for (const text of [
+        "Is 10:51 local time too early for more pizza talk?",
+        "meeting at 9:00 local",
+      ]) {
+        message.event.text = text;
+        await handler(message);
+        expect(slack.postEphemeralMessage).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+      }
+    });
+
     it("correctly converts 24 hour time", async () => {
       message.event.text = "23:42 mst";
       await handler(message);

From cea3d21842339391c985631b75c1654416eef039 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Charlie Tonneslan <cst0520@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 18 May 2026 12:15:13 -0400
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] tau-bot: split local-time test into two cases

Signed-off-by: Charlie Tonneslan <cst0520@gmail.com>
---
 src/scripts/timezone.test.js | 23 ++++++++++++-----------
 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/scripts/timezone.test.js b/src/scripts/timezone.test.js
index 0351b23d..66c82bb0 100644
--- a/src/scripts/timezone.test.js
+++ b/src/scripts/timezone.test.js
@@ -242,17 +242,18 @@ describe("Handy Tau-bot timezone conversions", () => {
       expect(slack.postEphemeralMessage).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
     });
 
-    it("does not respond when the author marks the time as local", async () => {
-      // "local time" / "local" mean "whatever the reader's clock says", so
-      // there's nothing to translate. Tracked at #533.
-      for (const text of [
-        "Is 10:51 local time too early for more pizza talk?",
-        "meeting at 9:00 local",
-      ]) {
-        message.event.text = text;
-        await handler(message);
-        expect(slack.postEphemeralMessage).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
-      }
+    it('does not respond when the time is followed by "local time"', async () => {
+      message.event.text = "Is 10:51 local time too early for more pizza talk?";
+      await handler(message);
+
+      expect(slack.postEphemeralMessage).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    });
+
+    it('does not respond when the time is followed by "local"', async () => {
+      message.event.text = "meeting at 9:00 local";
+      await handler(message);
+
+      expect(slack.postEphemeralMessage).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
     });
 
     it("correctly converts 24 hour time", async () => {