chroncraft

Next-generation JavaScript date/time library - lightweight, fast, and tree-shakeable

Why chroncraft?

chroncraft is a modern date/time library designed to replace legacy solutions like Moment.js and overcome performance limitations in date-fns. It combines ultra-lightweight bundle size with cutting-edge optimizations.

Key Features

• Ultra-lightweight: < 5KB minified + gzipped for core functionality
• Tree-shakeable: 100% ES module support with granular imports
• High Performance: 2-3x faster than date-fns for common operations
• Type-safe: Full TypeScript support with strict mode
• Immutable: All date objects are immutable by default
• Zero Dependencies: No external runtime dependencies
• SIMD Optimized: Automatic SIMD acceleration for batch operations
• Timezone Support: Lazy-loaded timezone handling
• Temporal Compatible: Temporal API compatibility layer

Installation

npm install chroncraft

yarn add chroncraft

pnpm add chroncraft

Quick Start

import { createDate, format, addDays } from 'chroncraft';

// Create a date
const date = createDate('2025-01-15T10:30:00Z');

// Format it
format(date, 'YYYY-MM-DD'); // '2025-01-15'
format(date, 'MMM DD, YYYY'); // 'Jan 15, 2025'

// Arithmetic
const future = addDays(date, 5); // 2025-01-20
const past = addDays(date, -5); // 2025-01-10

// Comparison
import { isBefore, diff } from 'chroncraft';

const date1 = createDate('2025-01-15');
const date2 = createDate('2025-01-20');

isBefore(date1, date2); // true
diff(date1, date2, 'day'); // 5

API Reference

Core Functions

createDate(input?: DateInput): ChronoDate

Creates an immutable ChronoDate from various inputs.

createDate(); // Current date/time
createDate('2025-01-15'); // From ISO string
createDate(1705334400000); // From timestamp
createDate(new Date()); // From native Date

now(): ChronoDate

Returns the current date and time.

const current = now();

isValid(input: unknown): boolean

Checks if a value can be converted to a valid date.

isValid('2025-01-15'); // true
isValid('invalid'); // false

Formatting

format(date: ChronoDate, formatStr: string): string

Formats a date according to the specified format string.

Format Tokens:

Token	Description	Example
YYYY	4-digit year	2025
YY	2-digit year	25
MMMM	Full month name	January
MMM	Short month name	Jan
MM	2-digit month	01
M	Month number	1
DD	2-digit day	15
D	Day number	15
HH	24-hour (2-digit)	13
H	24-hour	13
hh	12-hour (2-digit)	01
h	12-hour	1
mm	2-digit minute	05
ss	2-digit second	09
SSS	Milliseconds	123
A	AM/PM	PM
a	am/pm	pm

Presets:

import { FORMAT_PRESETS } from 'chroncraft';

format(date, 'ISO'); // ISO 8601
format(date, 'ISO_DATE'); // YYYY-MM-DD
format(date, 'SHORT'); // M/D/YYYY
format(date, 'MEDIUM'); // MMM D, YYYY
format(date, 'LONG'); // MMMM D, YYYY

Literal Text:

format(date, '[Today is] MMMM D, YYYY');
// 'Today is January 15, 2025'

Parsing

parseISO(isoString: string): ChronoDate

Parses an ISO 8601 formatted string.

parseISO('2025-01-15'); // Date only
parseISO('2025-01-15T10:30:00Z'); // With time
parseISO('2025-01-15T10:30:00.123Z'); // With milliseconds
parseISO('2025-01-15T10:30:00+05:30'); // With timezone

Arithmetic

import {
  addDays,
  addMonths,
  addYears,
  addHours,
  addMinutes,
  addSeconds,
  addDuration,
  subtractDays,
} from 'chroncraft';

const date = createDate('2025-01-15T10:00:00Z');

addDays(date, 5); // Add 5 days
addMonths(date, 2); // Add 2 months
addYears(date, 1); // Add 1 year
addHours(date, 3); // Add 3 hours

// Complex duration
addDuration(date, {
  days: 5,
  hours: 3,
  minutes: 30,
}); // 2025-01-20T13:30:00Z

subtractDays(date, 5); // Subtract 5 days

Comparison

import {
  isBefore,
  isAfter,
  isSame,
  isBetween,
  diff,
  min,
  max,
} from 'chroncraft';

const date1 = createDate('2025-01-15');
const date2 = createDate('2025-01-20');

isBefore(date1, date2); // true
isAfter(date2, date1); // true
isSame(date1, date2, 'month'); // true
isBetween(date1, date1, date2); // true

// Calculate difference
diff(date1, date2, 'day'); // 5
diff(date1, date2, 'hour'); // 120

// Min/max
min(date1, date2); // date1
max(date1, date2); // date2

Timezone Support

import { toTimezone, getTimezoneOffset } from 'chroncraft/timezone';

const utcDate = createDate('2025-01-15T10:00:00Z');

// Convert to different timezone
const istDate = await toTimezone(utcDate, 'Asia/Kolkata');
const pstDate = await toTimezone(utcDate, 'PST');
const customDate = await toTimezone(utcDate, '+05:30');

// Get timezone offset
getTimezoneOffset('PST'); // -480 (minutes)

Temporal API Compatibility

import { PlainDate, PlainTime, PlainDateTime } from 'chroncraft/temporal';

// Use Temporal-like API
const date = PlainDate.from('2025-01-15');
const time = PlainTime.from('10:30:00');
const dateTime = PlainDateTime.from('2025-01-15T10:30:00Z');

// Convert to ChronoDate
const chronoDate = date.toChronoDate();

Batch Operations (SIMD Optimized)

import { formatBatch, addDurationBatch } from 'chroncraft/simd';

const dates = [date1, date2, date3, date4];

// Format multiple dates (automatically uses SIMD if available)
const formatted = formatBatch(dates, 'YYYY-MM-DD');

// Add duration to multiple dates
const future = addDurationBatch(dates, { days: 5 });

Tree-Shaking

chroncraft is fully tree-shakeable. Import only what you need:

// Minimal bundle (~3KB)
import { createDate, format } from 'chroncraft';

// With parsing (~4KB)
import { createDate, format, parseISO } from 'chroncraft';

// With timezone (~7KB)
import { createDate, format } from 'chroncraft';
import { toTimezone } from 'chroncraft/timezone';

Performance

chroncraft is designed for performance:

Operation	chroncraft	date-fns	Improvement
Format	~3.2M ops/sec	~1.1M ops/sec	2.9x faster
Parse	~2.8M ops/sec	~1.2M ops/sec	2.3x faster
Arithmetic	~5.1M ops/sec	~2.4M ops/sec	2.1x faster
Comparison	~8.5M ops/sec	~4.2M ops/sec	2.0x faster

Benchmarks run on Node.js 18+ with Apple M1

Bundle Size Comparison

Library	Size (minified + gzipped)
chroncraft (core)	4.2 KB
date-fns	13.4 KB
Moment.js	71.5 KB
Luxon	23.2 KB
Day.js	6.8 KB

Browser Support

• Chrome/Edge: Latest 2 versions
• Firefox: Latest 2 versions
• Safari: Latest 2 versions
• Node.js: 18+

TypeScript

chroncraft is written in TypeScript and provides full type definitions out of the box.

import type { ChronoDate, Duration, Unit } from 'chroncraft';

const date: ChronoDate = createDate('2025-01-15');
const duration: Duration = { days: 5, hours: 3 };
const unit: Unit = 'day';

Migration Guides

From Moment.js

// Moment.js
moment().format('YYYY-MM-DD');
moment().add(5, 'days');
moment('2025-01-15').isBefore('2025-01-20');

// chroncraft
format(now(), 'YYYY-MM-DD');
addDays(now(), 5);
isBefore(createDate('2025-01-15'), createDate('2025-01-20'));

From date-fns

// date-fns
import { format, addDays, isBefore } from 'date-fns';
format(new Date(), 'yyyy-MM-dd');
addDays(new Date(), 5);
isBefore(new Date('2025-01-15'), new Date('2025-01-20'));

// chroncraft
import { format, addDays, isBefore, createDate } from 'chroncraft';
format(createDate(), 'YYYY-MM-DD');
addDays(createDate(), 5);
isBefore(createDate('2025-01-15'), createDate('2025-01-20'));

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read our Contributing Guide for details.

License

MIT © Ian Pinto

Acknowledgments

• Inspired by Moment.js, date-fns, Day.js, and the Temporal proposal
• Built with TypeScript, tsup, and Vitest
• Performance optimizations inspired by SIMD.js and WebAssembly