[FAQ] Why does Kestra use IANA timezone identifiers instead of offsets?

[AsherJD-io]

Course

data-engineering-zoomcamp

Question

Why does Kestra require timezones like America/New_York instead of UTC-5 or EST?

Answer

IANA timezone identifiers account for daylight saving transitions and historical changes. Fixed offsets or abbreviations can produce incorrect schedules during DST changes, which is why Kestra enforces IANA-based timezones.

Checklist

• I have searched existing FAQs and this question is not already answered
• The answer provides accurate, helpful information
• I have included any relevant code examples or links

[github-actions]

✅ FAQ NEW proposal created in PR #141

Please review and approve the changes.