The discussion centers on implementing full markdown support in Discourse Chat, specifically focusing on the rendering of headers. 37Rb initially requested this feature, noting that while human users rarely type headers, LLMs and RAG-enabled bots often include them when replying with raw post content. This results in broken formatting for users. Jagster highlighted the annoyance of broken headers, particularly when chat messages are quoted into topics.
Sam acknowledged the issue, and j.jaffeux announced that headings are now supported in chat via a recent commit. When asked if this applies to quoted messages, j.jaffeux confirmed it would work. However, following further consideration, j.jaffeux clarified that heading support is limited to messages generated by bots (user ID < 0). 37Rb inquired about the reasoning, and j.jaffeux explained that human usage had been abused in tests, and platforms like Slack do not support it, leading the team to view more cons than pros for general implementation.
Sam proposed closing the topic as completed, renaming it to “Full markdown support in Chat for bots” to reflect the original scope. 37Rb agreed, stating no general use case was needed. Sam noted that other markdown features, such as MathJax for mathematics, remain complex challenges. Finally, rokejulianlockhart asked if a separate topic exists for general markdown support, noting that until full Discourse Markdown is supported, the feature is insufficient for their needs.
