slowtime

Slowtime is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server focused on secure time-based operations with timing attack protections and timelock encryption. It provides a set of components—TimeFuzz for timing attack resistance, TimeKeeper for interval management, TimeLock for encryption, and TimeVault for storage and analytics. Using Slowtime, clients can create, pause, resume, and query intervals, encrypt data with timelocks tied to interval progress, and retrieve analytics about vault history. To interact with the server, you deploy it as a Node.js process and expose endpoints or IPC hooks as configured by your environment; clients can issue commands to start intervals, encrypt data with a timelock reference, and attempt decryption according to interval state. The design emphasizes preventing timing leaks, ensuring decryption is only possible after the associated interval completes, and maintaining detailed vault histories in a DuckDB WASM-backed store for analytics.

Typical workflows include:

• Creating and managing focus intervals (start, pause, resume) via the Interval Management components.
• Encrypting data using timelock: generate an interval, encrypt data with the corresponding interval context, and obtain a timelock identifier for later decryption attempts.
• Accessing vault analytics and history to observe decrypted vs. encrypted vaults and performance metrics. The server also supports query-based history retrieval and stats through the TimeVault subsystem.

Usage patterns focus on integrating Slowtime into Claude Desktop-based configurations or other orchestration layers, allowing secure time-bound data protection with resistance to timing-based side-channel leakage.

Prerequisites:

• Node.js (version 14+ recommended) and npm/yarn installed on your system
• Access to the Slowtime MCP server repository or built artifacts
• A hosting environment where you can run a Node.js process and, if needed, configure Claude Desktop or your client to point to the server

Installation steps:

1. Install Node.js and npm
   • On macOS with Homebrew: brew install node
   • On Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y nodejs npm
2. Obtain the Slowtime MCP server code or build artifacts
   • git clone https://github.com/bmorphism/slowtime-mcp-server.git
   • cd slowtime-mcp-server
   • npm install
3. Build the server (if build step is required)
   • npm run build
   • Ensure the build outputs index.js at the expected path (e.g., build/index.js)
4. Configure your environment to run the server
   • Create or update your Claude Desktop configuration at the specified path, or use your own orchestration to start the Node.js server
5. Start the server
   • node /path/to/slowtime-mcp-server/build/index.js
6. Verify the server is running
   • Check logs for startup messages
   • Send a test request to the server’s endpoints (if documented) or verify via your client integration

Optional: If you plan to deploy via a package manager or container, adapt the commands to your environment (e.g.,docker run or npm publish) depending on your deployment target.

Notes and tips:

• If you integrate with Claude Desktop, add the server under your Claude config (mcpServers) as shown in the README example, pointing to the built index.js path.
• Ensure the Timelock and Interval management components have proper time sources and clock synchronization to avoid drift impacting interval timing.
• For production deployments, consider exposing metrics and health endpoints for observability and setting appropriate resource limits for the Node.js process.
• If you encounter path or permission issues, verify that the user running Node.js has read/write access to the build output and any storage locations used by TimeVault (DuckDB WASM storage).
• Review environment variables your deployment may require (e.g., API keys, network time sources, or access to randomness sources) and document them in your deployment environment as needed.