Backend rows store timestamps as Unix SECONDS (time.time() REAL columns:
generation_history, dub_history, exports, longform jobs, projects), while
frontend-local records carry milliseconds (Date.now() story projects) or ISO
strings (transcriptions). Projects/OmniDrive fed the seconds straight into a
millisecond-based diff (fmtTime), so every generation-history card rendered
as ~1970 ("20617d ago") — and, because the same raw value drove the recency
sort, history items also sank to the bottom of the drive.
Fix the class, not the label: a single shared, unit-tolerant normalizer
(frontend/src/utils/relativeTime.js) now backs every relative-time call site.
- toMillis(ts): numbers < 1e12 are seconds (×1000), >= 1e12 already ms; ISO
and numeric strings parse; Date instances pass through; null/0/undefined/
garbage -> null. Backend storage format is untouched (backward compat).
- timeAgo(ts): "—" for missing stamps (never an epoch age), "just now" for
future stamps within 1 min of clock skew, s/m/h/d buckets, short absolute
date beyond 7 days.
- absoluteTime(ts): unit-safe tooltip text, '' when missing (no more
"Jan 1 1970" titles on null rows).
Converted call sites: pages/Projects.jsx (drop local fmtTime + per-source
*1000 juggling; normalize ts once so sort and label agree), components/
Sidebar.jsx + components/WorkspaceProjects.jsx (drop duplicated local
timeAgo copies and caller-side *1000), pages/BatchQueue.jsx (drop local
formatAge; missing created_at used to render an epoch date), pages/
Transcriptions.jsx + components/TranscriptionPicker.jsx (parse via
toMillis, keep their i18n labels; unparseable stamps no longer render
"Invalid Date").
Tests (fail-before/pass-after): utils/relativeTime.test.js covers seconds/
ms/ISO/numeric-string/Date inputs, null/0 -> "—", clock-skew "just now",
and the 1970 regression (a seconds stamp from today must not render as
thousands of days ago); test/ProjectsRelativeTime.test.jsx guards the
OmniDrive wiring end-to-end (seconds created_at renders "2h ago", null
renders "—", mixed-unit sort orders by real recency). Full frontend suite:
106 files / 843 tests green; oxlint, oxfmt, typecheck:ci, node:test green.
Co-authored-by: mergetest <test@local>
Co-authored-by: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
