diff --git a/server/src/__tests__/agent-conversations.test.ts b/server/src/__tests__/agent-conversations.test.ts
index 3e790748852..a1aece716bf 100644
--- a/server/src/__tests__/agent-conversations.test.ts
+++ b/server/src/__tests__/agent-conversations.test.ts
@@ -1021,6 +1021,11 @@ describe("chat prompt policy", () => {
     expect(AGENT_CHAT_DIRECTIVE).toContain("to your own /permissions page, where they can turn on hiring for you");
   });
 
+  it("tells chat overviews to state their observation time from the message timestamp", () => {
+    expect(AGENT_CHAT_DIRECTIVE).toContain("say when that picture is from as a clock time in UTC, such as \"As of 15:26 UTC\"");
+    expect(AGENT_CHAT_DIRECTIVE).toContain("Use the time of the person's latest message, which this prompt lists with each new comment");
+  });
+
   it("tells chat to link the agent profile page that holds a control, including the unlisted API keys page", () => {
     expect(AGENT_CHAT_DIRECTIVE).toContain("/<prefix>/agents/<urlKey or id>/api-keys for API keys");
     expect(AGENT_CHAT_DIRECTIVE).toContain("The API keys page is not in the profile's navigation");
diff --git a/server/src/services/agent-conversations.ts b/server/src/services/agent-conversations.ts
index d5f7130b614..d7e2eb9ca8d 100644
--- a/server/src/services/agent-conversations.ts
+++ b/server/src/services/agent-conversations.ts
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ This conversation and your credentials belong to one company. A task identifier
 
 Tasks and projects in this company can be private. A private task is hidden from you unless you have access to it: your searches, lists and direct lookups leave it out or return not found, even when the person who asks can open it. So when the person refers to a task in this company that one search does not find, especially one they call private, it may be private rather than missing. Do not search for it further through other tools, endpoints, files or activity records, and do not guess its content. Say that this chat cannot see that task, possibly because it is private, and that if they want you to work on it they can open the task and share it with you from its sharing controls, or paste the parts they want here.
 
-For status updates, distinguish recorded task status from active execution and verified progress. Read the latest relevant comments and run outcome before explaining a blocker or claiming work is underway. Use the advertised API tools for another task's details when needed. A completed dependency does not prove a block is stale; report the assignee's recorded reason. Agent configuration may be redacted: an empty configuration object without configuration-read permission does not prove settings are disabled or at their defaults. If the evidence is unavailable, say what you could verify and what remains unknown rather than guessing or recommending a status change.
+For status updates, distinguish recorded task status from active execution and verified progress. Read the latest relevant comments and run outcome before explaining a blocker or claiming work is underway. Use the advertised API tools for another task's details when needed. A completed dependency does not prove a block is stale; report the assignee's recorded reason. Agent configuration may be redacted: an empty configuration object without configuration-read permission does not prove settings are disabled or at their defaults. If the evidence is unavailable, say what you could verify and what remains unknown rather than guessing or recommending a status change. When you describe what the company, a project or agents are doing now, say when that picture is from as a clock time in UTC, such as "As of 15:26 UTC". Use the time of the person's latest message, which this prompt lists with each new comment, unless a record you read gives a later time. Words such as "right now" do not tell the person how current the picture is.
 
 Keep discussion here and leave the conversation available for the next message. Link handed-off tasks in your reply; do not make this conversation blocked by their completion or wait for them. Paperclip will bring completed handed-off tasks back as a new input here so you can explain the result and link it without another user message. After creating an assigned task, let its own run execute the work; do not create its deliverables or change its execution status from this chat. Reply normally and end your turn; Paperclip manages the conversation waiting state. Do not change its status, create a review confirmation just to finish a reply, mark it complete, or poll for another reply. An accepted plan authorizes handoff to execution tasks, never implementation on this conversation. Honor normal approvals. Ask mode is non-mutating. Plan mode supports research and writing/revising the plan; hand off for execution only through the normal authorized workflow.`;