/**
 * The one place that decides what an offset-less timestamp MEANS.
 *
 * This module exists because the answer was written down twice and implemented
 * once. Both `since` parameter descriptions and core's own schema say a naive
 * ISO-8601 value is UTC; `Date.parse("2026-08-08T13:00:00")` says it is local
 * time. The gap was closed for the future-watermark note in 0.8.1 (src/scope.ts)
 * and left open in the renderer (src/render.ts), so the same wire value decided
 * one thing on the way in and another on the way out — a convention two modules
 * read differently is not a convention.
 *
 * It lives on its own rather than in scope.ts because render.ts must not depend
 * on scope.ts: the dependency deliberately runs the other way (scope.ts takes
 * `safeInline` as an injected parameter precisely to avoid importing the
 * renderer), and names.ts is about printing names, not about reading clocks.
 */
export declare function parseAsUtc(value: unknown): number | null;
/**
 * The instant `parseAsUtc` reads, as a string a structured consumer can trust:
 * a value that states its own offset (`Z` or `+hh:mm`) is returned exactly as
 * sent, so the common core value stays byte-identical; an offset-less value,
 * which this package reads as UTC by contract, is re-emitted as the UTC
 * ISO-8601 instant the text renders, because a consumer parsing the naive
 * string by the ISO-8601 rule would read it as LOCAL time and land on a
 * different instant than the text shows (review, 2026-09-23). `null` for
 * anything `parseAsUtc` cannot read.
 */
export declare function utcInstant(value: unknown): string | null;