`Joi.date().default('now')` does not produce current time

Runtime

node.js

Runtime version

24.x

Module version

18.2.0

Last module version without issue

No response

Used with

standalone

Any other relevant information

Found while working on JSON Schema output for date schemas (re #3108).

Happy to submit a (reasonable size ) PR for this one if you're open to it.

What are you trying to achieve or the steps to reproduce?

Joi.date().default('now') does not resolve to the current time. The literal string 'now' is returned as the default value:

const schema = Joi.date().default('now');
const result = schema.validate(undefined);

result.value; // 'now'

This is surprising because 'now' is a documented dynamic token in the date comparison APIs:

Joi.date().min('now');
Joi.date().max('now');
Joi.date().greater('now');
Joi.date().less('now');

Those rules special-case 'now' and compare against Date.now() at validation time. So there is an inconsistency in how the same token is interpreted across the date API surface:

• min/max/greater/less('now') treat 'now' as a dynamic date token.
• default('now') treats 'now' as an ordinary string literal.

Defaults are applied after validation/coercion, and literal defaults are returned as-is, so there is no date-specific interpretation for 'now' in the default path. Workaround:

Joi.date().default(() => new Date()); // returns an actual Date

What was the result you got?

'now' as a literal.

What result did you expect?

Current date value.