SonarQube server-side UTC scheduling versus client-side browser time zone display consistency

Integration boundary

SonarQube persists all timestamps as UTC in the database and returns ISO 8601 UTC strings from its REST API, while the web UI performs client-side conversion to the browser's local time zone. Scheduled tasks such as project analysis and housekeeping execute according to the JVM default time zone, and server-side report exports (PDF, CSV) format dates using that same JVM zone.

Unresolved behavior

There is no instance-level setting to align the server's operational time zone with a chosen display zone. Consequently, a daily housekeeping job scheduled for 02:00 server time may correspond to a different calendar day for users in distant time zones, and exported reports can show dates that differ from the UI by up to one day.

Goal

Determine whether the platform intends the server JVM time zone to be treated as an operational concern only, or whether integrators should expect future alignment between scheduled-task timing, report generation, and the user-facing localization layer.

Specific questions:

1. Is the JVM time zone for scheduled tasks and server-side reports considered a stable contract, or is convergence with the client-side display zone planned?
2. Should API consumers implement their own offset logic when correlating scheduled-task timestamps with UI-displayed dates?