Canonical Temporal Coordinates · Grid example

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See this model in motion.

Watch the model respond in the product, then inspect the exact source and checkpoints on this page.

Companion film

Time is a coordinate

Change revenue, then look back at an earlier revision without disturbing the live model.

21 secGrid 0.61.0

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What this model gives you

A compact clock-and-ledger model showing standalone temporal coordinates and historical cell lookups at relative, calendar, CE, BCE, and explicit-date boundaries.

25 min to study · Source reviewed 2026-08-26

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What to notice

Clock-relative coordinate resolution
Calendar, CE, and BCE anchors
Postfix cell-at-time history lookup
Deterministic clock and revision fixtures

Requirements

Host evaluation clock and calendar registry
Archived model revisions for B1:B6
A saved revision before inspecting the future-coordinate lookup
No connector or network

Expected checkpoint

A known state for this walkthrough.

With the evaluation clock pinned by the host and a known archived revision set. The source intentionally does not ship those fixtures, so the contract proves compilation rather than claiming concrete clock- or history-dependent values.

@today: Start of the pinned evaluation dayA1
@monday / @january: Most recent Monday / January 1, inclusiveA2 / A3
@1776 / @5000BCE: January 1 of the named CE / BCE yearA4 / A5
@2026-12-31: The explicit authored dateA6
C1:C6 at time: Latest archived value at or before each coordinateB1:B6; requires ledger fixtures

01 · Pin

Control the evaluation coordinate first

Relative words are resolved by the host clock and calendar registry. For a reproducible check, record the timezone, calendar, and exact evaluation instant before asserting A1:A3.

02 · Anchor

Distinguish relative words from absolute years and dates

@today, @monday, and @january select past-or-current calendar boundaries. @1776 and @5000BCE select year starts, while @2026-12-31 is already an explicit date value.

03 · Archive

Postfix coordinates query saved cell history

B1:B6 lower to temporal references over C1:C6. Each lookup returns the latest archived value at or before its coordinate; it does not read an unsaved current binding or synthesize missing history.

04 · Verify

Test coordinates with clock and ledger fixtures

Create named revisions on both sides of a boundary, pin the evaluation clock, then assert the selected revision identity as well as its value. The future-dated B6 lookup becomes meaningful after at least one source revision has been saved.

09-temporal-coordinates.grid

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MODEL "Canonical Temporal Coordinates"
DESCRIPTION "Portable examples of Grid @ temporal coordinate shorthands."
VERSION "1.0.0"
AUTHOR "Grid Team"
TAGS "canonical", "temporal", "coordinates"

# Standalone coordinates resolve at evaluation time.
A1 = @today
A2 = @monday
A3 = @january
A4 = @1776
A5 = @5000BCE
A6 = @2026-12-31

# Postfix forms lower to TEMPORAL_REF for ledger-backed AS_OF lookups.
# They require a matching archived revision; the future-dated Snapshot lookup
# becomes available after the model's first save.
B1 = C1@today
B2 = C2@monday
B3 = C3@january
B4 = C4@1776
B5 = C5@5000BCE
B6 = C6@2026-12-31

# TEMPORAL_REF reads archived cell symbols, so keep the ledger-backed sources
# in explicit cells rather than named values.
C1 IS currency = 125000  # Revenue
C2 IS currency = 86000   # Balance
C3 IS currency = 42000   # Opening
C4 = 1776                # Founding
C5 = 5000                # Ancient
C6 IS currency = 7       # Snapshot

END MODEL