Date and period pickers

Observability uses the same date pickers wherever a screen sets a period or a date filter: a period control in a table toolbar, and calendars for custom ranges. Use this page to learn how the pickers behave, what your selection ends up covering, and the one limit they all share. The toolbar around them, with defaults, rows per page and exports, is in Periods, filters and exports.

Pick a period

Open a table, for example Observability > Logs > Audit.
Find the Period control in the toolbar, next to the search box, and click a preset or Custom.

The presets differ by screen:

Screen	Period presets
Log and query tables	Today, Last 7d, Last 30d, Custom
System Overview and the ClickHouse History view	Last 1h, Last 24h, Last 7d, Last 30d, Custom
Mind Analytics	All time, Last 24h, Last 7d, Last 30d, Last 90d, Custom

Custom does not switch the period straight away. It opens the calendar popover so you can choose your dates first, and the period changes only when you click Apply.

Choose a custom range

Click Custom. The popover opens with the dates you applied last, or with today when you have not applied a range yet.
Pick a day in the calendar. For a span, click Range, then pick the first day and the last day.
To add times, turn on Time and set a Start Time and an End Time, down to the second. A single day needs no times: the popover hides Time and the day counts as a whole.
Click Apply. The table reloads for your range and the popover closes. Cancel closes it without applying anything.

While Custom is active, a short summary of your range sits next to the tabs, such as Sep 3, Sep 3 - Sep 4 or Sep 3, 14:00 - Sep 4, 16:00. Reopening Custom shows the dates you applied last. Choosing another preset such as Today leaves Custom and clears what the popover remembered, so Custom starts from today again.

What your selection covers

A single day means exactly that day.
With times off, a day runs from 00:00:00.000 to 23:59:59.999, and a range runs from the first moment of its first day to the last millisecond of its last day.
If you pick the end before the start, the picker swaps them, so the earlier day becomes the start.
The days you pick are read in your device's time zone, and the platform compares exact instants, so a range matches your local days.

Note

The end of a range is inclusive to the millisecond, so nothing in the last second of the last day falls outside it.

The one-year limit

A custom range can span at most one year.
A longer range is not applied: you see Date range too large, with "Custom date range cannot exceed 1 year.", and the table keeps the dates it had.
If a range remembered in your browser can no longer be read, the table opens on Last 7d.
Your period choice is remembered for each table in this browser. Another browser or device starts on Last 7d.

See Observability troubleshooting for the message table.

Other places the picker opens

As a centred window titled Select Date, with a close button whose tooltip reads Close, and Cancel and Apply at its foot. It follows the same rules: it opens on the dates already applied, everything you click stays temporary until you click Apply, and cancelling or closing changes nothing. If the screen sets an earliest date, days before it cannot be picked.
Inside a filter menu, as the Date range item. It hosts the same compact picker: Apply turns your dates into that filter's values and closes the menu, and Cancel closes it without setting the filter.

Where the pickers appear

The same controls sit wherever Observability sets a period or a date filter:

The log tables: Audit, sign-in and notification logs, AI, socket and PII logs, Socket logs, PII detection logs, SSO login logs and Table DDL logs.
Query Management, where one period covers the query log and the insight views.
System Overview, Mind Analytics and the History view of ClickHouse activity.

Questions, answered

Why does clicking Custom open a calendar instead of changing the period?

Custom needs a range before it can filter anything, so the tab opens the popover and waits. The table keeps its current period until you click Apply; Cancel closes the popover and changes nothing.

What is the difference between Static and Range?

Static picks a single day. Range picks a span: you pick the first day, then the last day. In the popover, Time appears with Range only, because a single day always counts as a whole day.

Can I pick exact times, not just days?

Yes. In the popover, switch to Range and turn on Time, then set a Start Time and an End Time, down to the second.

What happens if I pick the end date before the start date?

The picker swaps the two, so the earlier day becomes the start of your range.

If I leave Time off, what does the range cover?

Whole days. A day runs from 00:00:00.000 to 23:59:59.999, and a range covers the full days from its first to its last, including the final millisecond of the last day.

Are the dates read in my time zone?

Yes. The picker reads the days in your device's time zone and the platform compares exact instants, so a range matches your local days.

Why can't I pick a future date?

The calendars stop at today, so a period can only look back.

How do I close the picker without applying anything?

Click Cancel, or the close button on the Select Date window. Nothing changes, and the next time the picker opens it starts again from the dates you applied last.

Why did my custom range disappear?

Custom keeps the dates you applied last while you stay on it. Choosing another preset such as Today clears them, and going back to Custom starts from today. If a range remembered in your browser can no longer be read, the table falls back to Last 7d.

Can I set a date range on a column filter instead of the whole table?

Yes. A filter menu can include a Date range item that opens the same compact picker; Apply turns your dates into that filter's values and closes the menu. How filters work across the tables is in Periods, filters and exports.