Chronos Plugins

info

Chronos supports a powerful plugin system that allows developers to inject additional methods or utilities into the Chronos class without modifying its core. This enables clean separation of concerns, tree-shaking, modular feature design, and maintainability.
Plugins can be official (maintained by the core team) or custom (developed by users). See the list of official plugins below or learn how to write your own plugin.

🧩 What Is a Plugin?

A plugin is a function that takes the Chronos class constructor and augments it—usually by adding prototype methods.

type ChronosPlugin = (ChronosClass: typeof Chronos) => void;

You can inject plugins via the static Chronos.use() method or its wrapper function:

Chronos.use(pluginName);

// or 
chronos.use(pluginName)

tip

Each plugin is only applied once, even if use() is called multiple times with the same plugin.
If a plugin enables multiple methods, injecting once will enable all the methods by that particular plugin. See the list below

✅ Using a Plugin

To enable a plugin, use the static Chronos.use() method before creating instances:

import { Chronos, chronos } from 'nhb-toolbox';

// For importing a plugin from the package, plugin name and import path are same
import { pluginName } from 'nhb-toolbox/plugins/pluginName';

// Using the plugin
Chronos.use(pluginName);
// or 
chronos.use(pluginName)

// Using the method enabled by that plugin
const c = new Chronos();
c.enabledMethod();

// or 
chronos().enabledMethod()

📦 Official Plugins

Plugin Names	Imports Statements	Methods Registered
`relativeTimePlugin`		getRelativeYear, getRelativeMonth, getRelativeWeek, getRelativeDay, getRelativeHour, getRelativeMinute, getRelativeSecond, getRelativeMilliSecond, compare, isToday, isTomorrow, isYesterday
`timeZonePlugin`		timeZone, getTimeZoneNameShort
`fromNowPlugin`		fromNow
`businessPlugin`		isWeekend, isWorkday, isBusinessHour, toAcademicYear, toFiscalQuarter
`seasonPlugin`		season
`dayPartPlugin`		getPartOfDay
`zodiacPlugin`		getZodiacSign
`palindromePlugin`		isPalindromeDate
`greetingPlugin`		getGreeting
(More coming soon)

🛠️ Writing Your Own Custom Plugin

Here's the basic structure of a Chronos plugin with access to protected and/or private internals:

import { Chronos, INTERNALS } from 'nhb-toolbox';

// Create a module augmentation to add your custom method to the `Chronos` interface
// This allows TypeScript to recognize the new method on `Chronos` instances
// This should be inside a `d.ts` file or at the top of your plugin file (must be a `.ts` file)
declare module 'nhb-toolbox/chronos' {
  interface Chronos {
    /**
    * @instance Custom `Chronos` method to greet a user with the current date.
    * @param user The name of the user to greet.
    * @returns A greeting message including the user's name and the current ISO dates.
    */
    customMethod(user: string): string;
  }
}

// The plugin function must be in a `.ts` or `.js` file
/** * Plugin to inject `customMethod` into Chronos instances. */
export const customPlugin = (ChronosClass: typeof Chronos): void => {
  ChronosClass.prototype.customMethod = function (this: Chronos, user: string): string {
    // Example of accessing internals through protected static interface
    const internalDate = ChronosClass[INTERNALS].internalDate(this);
    return `Hello ${user}, Welcome to custom plugin! Current date: { local: ${this} } { utc: ${internalDate.toISOString()} }`;
  };
};

Now consume the plugin in the same file or another file where you want to use your custom method

import { Chronos } from 'nhb-toolbox';
// or import { Chronos } from 'nhb-toolbox/chronos';
import { customPlugin } from './path-to-your-plugin-file';

// Use the plugin in your application's root/entry file or where you initialize `Chronos`
Chronos.use(customPlugin);

new Chronos().customMethod('NHB');
// => "Hello NHB, Welcome to custom plugin! Current date: { local: 2025-09-22T14:47:44.132+06:00 } { utc: 2025-09-22T08:47:44.132Z }"

🔐 Accessing Internals

Plugins can safely access protected and/or private internal properties or methods through the static [INTERNALS] interface:

🔐 Available Internal Properties

interface ChronosInternals {
  /**
   * Creates a new Chronos instance with origin tracking
   * @param instance - Chronos instance to operate on
   * @param method - Name of the method creating this instance
   * @param label - Optional UTC offset label
   */
  withOrigin(
    instance: Chronos,
    method: ChronosMethods,
    label?: UTCOffSet,
  ): Chronos;

  /**
   * Creates a new Date object from Chronos input
   * @param instance - Chronos instance to operate on
   * @param value - Input value to convert (optional, uses current date if omitted)
   */
  toNewDate(instance: Chronos, value?: ChronosInput): Date;

  /**
   * Gets the internal Date object
   * @param instance - Chronos instance to access
   */
  internalDate(instance: Chronos): Date;

  /**
   * Gets the current UTC offset
   * @param instance - Chronos instance to access
   */
  offset(instance: Chronos): UTCOffSet;
}

🚀 Usage Example

Here's a real example from the package itself: plugin that adds a timeZone method to Chronos instances, allowing users to convert the instance to a specified time zone using some internal methods and properties:

import { Chronos, INTERNALS } from 'nhb-toolbox';
// Other imports

declare module 'nhb-toolbox/chronos' {
  interface Chronos {
    timeZone(): string;
  }
}

export const timeZonePlugin = (ChronosClass: typeof Chronos): void => {
  ChronosClass.prototype.timeZone = function (
    this: Chronos,
    zone: TimeZone | UTCOffSet
  ): Chronos {
    let targetOffset: number;
    let stringOffset: UTCOffSet;

    if (isValidUTCOffSet(zone)) {
      targetOffset = extractMinutesFromUTC(zone);
      stringOffset = zone;
    } else {
      targetOffset = TIME_ZONES?.[zone] ?? TIME_ZONES['UTC'];
      stringOffset = formatUTCOffset(targetOffset);
    }

    const previousOffset = this.getTimeZoneOffsetMinutes();
    const relativeOffset = targetOffset - previousOffset;

    const internals = ChronosClass[INTERNALS];

    const adjustedTime = new Date(
      internals.internalDate(this).getTime() + relativeOffset * 60 * 1000
    );

    const instance = new ChronosClass(adjustedTime);

    return internals.withOrigin(instance, 'timeZone', stringOffset);
  };
};

🔥 Important Notes

Important

Always augment Chronos via module augmentation to ensure TypeScript recognizes your new methods using this subpath: 'nhb-toolbox/chronos'
Import Chronos and INTERNALS from 'nhb-toolbox' in your plugin file
Always use the static [INTERNALS] interface rather than trying to access private fields directly
The withOrigin method should be used when creating new Chronos instances to maintain proper origin tracking
For native js Date manipulation in your plugin, prefer using toNewDate from ChronosInternals interface rather than creating Date objects directly to maintain consistency with internal handling of Chronos

🧩 What Is a Plugin?​

✅ Using a Plugin​

📦 Official Plugins​

🛠️ Writing Your Own Custom Plugin​

🔐 Accessing Internals​

🔐 Available Internal Properties​

🚀 Usage Example​

🔥 Important Notes​