Manipulating dates in automations

Overview

When automations output date or datetime values directly into Jestor fields (for example, stamping a finish date when a card reaches the last kanban stage), no additional manipulation is needed — they work as expected.

Date manipulation is needed when you want to:

• Use a relative date (e.g. a deadline 3 days from now)
• Format a date value for a notification or message (e.g. m/d/Y)

Getting "now" and relative dates

Use {{date()}} to get the exact moment the automation runs.

{{date()}}

To get a date relative to now, pass a modifier as the first parameter:

{{date('yesterday')}}

You can also combine a reference point, a format, and a modifier in a single call:

{{date('today','m/d/Y','+5 days')}}

This returns today's date plus 5 days, formatted as m/d/Y.

Formatting and modifying field date values

When the automation run date is irrelevant and you need to manipulate a specific date field, use date_format() and date_modify() by appending them to the field name with a pipe |.

date_format()

Changes the format of a date field value:

{{start_date|date_format('Y-m-d')}}

date_modify()

Adds or subtracts time from a date field value:

{{start_date|date_modify('+5 days')}}

Combining both

date_modify() accepts a format as a second parameter, so you can modify and format in one step:

{{start_date|date_modify('+5 days','Y-m-d')}}