Root cause: Model was instructed to output <workspace_memory_candidates> XML
tags in the user-visible compaction summary, causing purple/italic rendering
when combined with --- delimiters in Markdown.
Fixes:
- compactionContextHeader(): Now instructs model to use HTML comment format
<!-- workspace_memory_candidates ... --> which is hidden from users
- extractCandidateBlock(): New function supports 3 formats:
1. HTML comment (preferred, hidden from user)
2. Markdown section (visible but clean)
3. Legacy XML (backward compatible)
- Added "DO NOT use XML tags" and "DO NOT start with ---" instructions
Tests:
- Verify compaction context header uses HTML comment format
- Test parser accepts all 3 formats (HTML comment, Markdown, legacy XML)
- Add stripXmlTags() to convert <workspace_memory>, <hot_session_state>, <pending_todos> to Markdown headers for compaction context
- Add [PRIVATE COMPACTION CONTEXT - DO NOT OUTPUT] wrapper to prevent model from copying input context to output
- Rename renderTodos to renderTodosForCompaction for clarity
- Add test to verify compaction context contains no XML tags
This fixes the issue where compaction summary would render with purple italic text
due to --- delimiters interacting with XML-like tags in Markdown.
## Task 1: Fix exitCode undefined false positive
- Add `typeof exitCode !== "number"` check in plugin.ts
- Only extract errors when exitCode is explicitly non-zero
- Prevent git-log/cat with "errors" text from creating false positives
## Task 2: Fix workspace memory XML truncation
- Budget-aware line-by-line rendering
- Always include closing </workspace_memory> tag
- Return empty string when budget too small
- Bonus: canonical exact deduplication with source priority
## Task 3: Remove "always" as trigger
- Replace "always" with "going forward" in patterns
- Add word boundary via `g` flag and matchAll loop
- "from now on" still works as expected
## Task 4: Verification
- 22 tests passing
- typecheck passing
Tests cover:
- git log/cat with loose "errors" ignored
- TS2345/TypeError strong signals captured
- undefined exitCode: no create, no clear
- exitCode 0: clears errors
- exitCode non-zero: creates error
- XML never truncated mid-tag
- "always" not a trigger
Ralph Chang