generatedAt

GeneratedAt is a timestamp indicating when a piece of data, a document, or a generated artifact was produced by a process or system. It is metadata that records the instant of generation, as opposed to the moment of storage or retrieval. In many contexts, generatedAt is used to indicate freshness, determine cache validity, or assist auditing and debugging.

Common formats include ISO 8601 strings such as 2025-12-27T12:34:56Z, or numeric representations like Unix epoch milliseconds. Using UTC and a consistent format is recommended to avoid ambiguity across time zones and systems.

In API responses and data models, generatedAt is often included alongside other timestamps such as createdAt or updatedAt. GeneratedAt may reflect the time at which the content was produced by a generator, render engine, or data pipeline, which may be different from when the item was persisted or published.

Implementation notes: ensure clock synchronization, prefer explicit time zones, consider millisecond or higher precision if needed, and document the semantics for users.