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AECS

6. Timestamps

  • All timestamps in NormalizedEmail MUST be in UTC.
  • metadata.date MUST be ISO 8601 with explicit UTC offset (Z or +00:00).
  • metadata.timestamp MUST be Unix epoch seconds derived from metadata.date (integer, floor of UTC seconds — no fractional component).
  • processing.processedAt MUST be ISO 8601 UTC.
  • If the Date header is absent or unparseable, metadata.date and metadata.timestamp MUST be null. Implementations MUST NOT substitute processing time, receipt time, or any other guessed value.

6.1 Date Header Parsing

Section titled “6.1 Date Header Parsing”

When normalizing from RFC 5322 messages, implementations MUST parse the Date header and produce metadata.date in the form YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ with no fractional seconds. Implementations MAY also accept values already in ISO 8601 form.

metadata.timestamp MUST be the integer Unix epoch second corresponding to that instant in UTC. Two implementations parsing the same Date header MUST produce identical metadata.date and metadata.timestamp values.