fix(chat): preserve markdown when copying messages

apps/sim/app/workspace/[workspaceId]/components/message-actions/message-actions.tsx

@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import {
   ThumbsUp,
   Tooltip,
   toast,
+  useCopyToClipboard,
 } from '@sim/emcn'
 import { useParams, useRouter } from 'next/navigation'
 import { isLiveAssistantMessageId } from '@/lib/copilot/chat/effective-transcript'
@@ -23,82 +24,54 @@ import { useSubmitCopilotFeedback } from '@/hooks/queries/copilot-feedback'
 import { useForkMothershipChat } from '@/hooks/queries/mothership-chats'
 import { useFolderStore } from '@/stores/folders/store'
 
-const SPECIAL_TAGS = 'thinking|options|usage_upgrade|credential|mothership-error|file|question'
-
-function toPlainText(raw: string): string {
-  return (
-    raw
-      // Strip special tags and their contents
-      .replace(new RegExp(`<\\/?(${SPECIAL_TAGS})(?:>[\\s\\S]*?<\\/(${SPECIAL_TAGS})>|>)`, 'g'), '')
-      // Strip markdown
-      .replace(/^#{1,6}\s+/gm, '')
-      .replace(/\*\*(.+?)\*\*/g, '$1')
-      .replace(/\*(.+?)\*/g, '$1')
-      .replace(/`{3}[\s\S]*?`{3}/g, '')
-      .replace(/`(.+?)`/g, '$1')
-      .replace(/\[([^\]]+)\]\([^)]+\)/g, '$1')
-      .replace(/^[>\-*]\s+/gm, '')
-      .replace(/!\[[^\]]*\]\([^)]+\)/g, '')
-      // Normalize whitespace
-      .replace(/\n{3,}/g, '\n\n')
-      .trim()
-  )
-}
-
 const ICON_CLASS = 'size-[14px]'
 const BUTTON_CLASS =
   'flex size-[26px] items-center justify-center rounded-[6px] text-[var(--text-icon)] transition-colors hover-hover:bg-[var(--surface-hover)] focus-visible:outline-none'
 
 interface MessageActionsProps {
   content: string
+  getCopyContent?: () => string
+  hasCopyContent?: boolean
+  prepareContentForCopy?: (content: string) => string
   userQuery?: string
   requestId?: string
   messageId?: string
 }
 
 export const MessageActions = memo(function MessageActions({
   content,
+  getCopyContent,
+  hasCopyContent,
+  prepareContentForCopy,
   userQuery,
   requestId,
   messageId,
 }: MessageActionsProps) {
   const router = useRouter()
   const params = useParams<{ workspaceId: string }>()
   const { chatId } = useChatSurface()
-  const [copied, setCopied] = useState(false)
+  const { copied, copy: copyMessage } = useCopyToClipboard({ resetMs: 1500 })
   const [copiedRequestId, setCopiedRequestId] = useState(false)
   const [pendingFeedback, setPendingFeedback] = useState<'up' | 'down' | null>(null)
   const [feedbackText, setFeedbackText] = useState('')
-  const resetTimeoutRef = useRef<number | null>(null)
   const requestIdTimeoutRef = useRef<number | null>(null)
   const submitFeedback = useSubmitCopilotFeedback()
   const forkChat = useForkMothershipChat(params.workspaceId)
 
   useEffect(() => {
     return () => {
-      if (resetTimeoutRef.current !== null) {
-        window.clearTimeout(resetTimeoutRef.current)
-      }
       if (requestIdTimeoutRef.current !== null) {
         window.clearTimeout(requestIdTimeoutRef.current)
       }
     }
   }, [])
 
-  const copyToClipboard = async () => {
-    if (!content) return
-    const text = toPlainText(content)
-    if (!text) return
-    try {
-      await navigator.clipboard.writeText(text)
-      setCopied(true)
-      if (resetTimeoutRef.current !== null) {
-        window.clearTimeout(resetTimeoutRef.current)
-      }
-      resetTimeoutRef.current = window.setTimeout(() => setCopied(false), 1500)
-    } catch {
-      /* clipboard unavailable */
-    }
+  const copyToClipboard = () => {
+    const contentToCopy = getCopyContent?.() ?? content
+    if (!contentToCopy) return
+    const markdown = prepareContentForCopy?.(contentToCopy) ?? contentToCopy
+    if (!markdown) return
+    void copyMessage(markdown)
   }
 
   const copyRequestId = async () => {
@@ -166,18 +139,18 @@ export const MessageActions = memo(function MessageActions({
     }
   }
 
-  const hasContent = Boolean(content)
+  const canCopyContent = hasCopyContent ?? Boolean(content)
   const canSubmitFeedback = Boolean(chatId && userQuery)
   // A live (just-streamed) assistant message carries a synthetic id that the
   // persisted transcript doesn't know — forking it would 400. The button
   // appears once the transcript refetch swaps in the persisted message id.
   const canFork = Boolean(chatId && messageId && !isLiveAssistantMessageId(messageId))
-  if (!hasContent && !canSubmitFeedback && !canFork) return null
+  if (!canCopyContent && !canSubmitFeedback && !canFork) return null
 
   return (
     <>
       <div className='flex items-center gap-0.5'>
-        {hasContent && (
+        {canCopyContent && (
           <Tooltip.Root>
             <Tooltip.Trigger asChild>
               <button

apps/sim/app/workspace/[workspaceId]/home/components/message-content/index.ts

@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 export {
   assistantMessageHasRenderableContent,
+  getOrchestratorMessageText,
   MessageContent,
 } from './message-content'
 export type { MessagePhase } from './utils'

apps/sim/app/workspace/[workspaceId]/home/components/message-content/message-content.test.ts

@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ import type { ContentBlock } from '../../types'
 import {
   assistantMessageHasVisibleExecutingTool,
   deriveThinkingLabel,
+  getOrchestratorMessageText,
   parseBlocks,
   shouldSmoothTextSegment,
 } from './message-content'
@@ -100,6 +101,66 @@ function toolEnvelope(
   } as PersistedStreamEventEnvelope
 }
 
+describe('getOrchestratorMessageText', () => {
+  it('copies only orchestrator text from span-based messages', () => {
+    const blocks: ContentBlock[] = [
+      subagentStart('research', 'span-visible', 'main'),
+      {
+        type: 'subagent_text',
+        content: 'Visible research. ',
+        spanId: 'span-visible',
+        timestamp: 2,
+      },
+      {
+        type: 'subagent_text',
+        content: 'Hidden orphan. ',
+        spanId: 'span-orphan',
+        timestamp: 3,
+      },
+      mainText('Main answer.'),
+    ]
+
+    expect(getOrchestratorMessageText(blocks, 'Fallback.')).toBe('Main answer.')
+  })
+
+  it('copies only orchestrator text from legacy messages', () => {
+    const blocks: ContentBlock[] = [
+      { type: 'subagent_text', content: 'Hidden orphan. ', timestamp: 1 },
+      {
+        type: 'subagent',
+        content: 'research',
+        parentToolCallId: 'dispatch-visible',
+        timestamp: 2,
+      },
+      {
+        type: 'subagent_text',
+        content: 'Visible research. ',
+        parentToolCallId: 'dispatch-visible',
+        timestamp: 3,
+      },
+      mainText('Main answer.'),
+    ]
+
+    expect(getOrchestratorMessageText(blocks, 'Fallback.')).toBe('Main answer.')
+  })
+
+  it('separates orchestrator text blocks around excluded subagent output', () => {
+    const blocks: ContentBlock[] = [
+      mainText('Starting answer.'),
+      subagentStart('research', 'span-visible', 'main'),
+      {
+        type: 'subagent_text',
+        content: 'Visible research.',
+        spanId: 'span-visible',
+        timestamp: 2,
+      },
+      mainText('Main answer.'),
+    ]
+
+    expect(getOrchestratorMessageText(blocks, 'Fallback.')).toBe('Starting answer.\n\nMain answer.')
+  })
+})
+
 describe('parseBlocks span-identity tree', () => {
   it('refines a completed credential rename with its previous and new names', () => {
     const segments = parseBlocks([

apps/sim/app/workspace/[workspaceId]/home/components/message-content/message-content.tsx

@@ -492,6 +492,23 @@ export function parseBlocks(blocks: ContentBlock[]): MessageSegment[] {
   return parseBlocksLegacy(blocks)
 }
 
+function joinRenderableText(parts: string[]): string {
+  return parts.filter(Boolean).join('\n\n')
+}
+
+/** Returns only top-level orchestrator text, excluding agent groups and other UI segments. */
+export function getOrchestratorMessageText(
+  blocks: ContentBlock[],
+  fallbackContent: string
+): string {
+  const parsed = blocks.length > 0 ? parseBlocks(blocks) : []
+  if (parsed.length === 0) return fallbackContent
+
+  return joinRenderableText(
+    parsed.map((segment) => (segment.type === 'text' ? segment.content : ''))
+  )
+}
+
 function parseBlocksLegacy(blocks: ContentBlock[]): MessageSegment[] {
   const segments: MessageSegment[] = []
   const groupsByKey = new Map<string, AgentGroupSegment>()

apps/sim/app/workspace/[workspaceId]/home/components/mothership-chat/copyable-markdown.test.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest'
+import { toCopyableMarkdown } from '@/app/workspace/[workspaceId]/home/components/mothership-chat/copyable-markdown'
+
+describe('toCopyableMarkdown', () => {
+  it('preserves message Markdown, including fenced code and its language', () => {
+    const message = [
+      '# Elevator diagnosis',
+      '',
+      'The bug is in `dispatch_legacy.py`:',
+      '',
+      '```python',
+      'def next_stop(requests, current):',
+      '    ranked = sorted(requests)',
+      '    return ranked[1:]',
+      '```',
+      '',
+      '**Result:** the closest request *was not* always selected.',
+    ].join('\n')
+
+    expect(toCopyableMarkdown(message)).toBe(message)
+  })
+
+  it('removes internal structured tags without flattening surrounding Markdown', () => {
+    const message = [
+      'Before **formatted text**.',
+      '<credential>{"type":"service_account","provider":"gmail"}</credential>',
+      'After [a link](https://example.com).',
+    ].join('\n')
+
+    expect(toCopyableMarkdown(message)).toBe(
+      ['Before **formatted text**.', '', 'After [a link](https://example.com).'].join('\n')
+    )
+  })
+
+  it('preserves tag-shaped text that the chat renders literally', () => {
+    const message = [
+      'Document `<credential>example</credential>`.',
+      '',
+      '```html',
+      '<file>example</file>',
+      '<question>example</question>',
+      '```',
+    ].join('\n')
+
+    expect(toCopyableMarkdown(message)).toBe(message)
+  })
+})

apps/sim/app/workspace/[workspaceId]/home/components/mothership-chat/copyable-markdown.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+import { sanitizeChatDisplayContent } from '@/app/workspace/[workspaceId]/home/components/message-content/components/chat-content/chat-sanitize'
+import { parseSpecialTags } from '@/app/workspace/[workspaceId]/home/components/message-content/components/special-tags'
+
+export function toCopyableMarkdown(raw: string): string {
+  const displayContent = sanitizeChatDisplayContent(raw)
+  const { segments } = parseSpecialTags(displayContent, false)
+
+  return segments
+    .reduce((markdown, segment) => {
+      return segment.type === 'text' ? markdown + segment.content : markdown
+    }, '')
+    .trim()
+}

apps/sim/app/workspace/[workspaceId]/home/components/mothership-chat/mothership-chat.tsx

@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ import { ChatMessageAttachments } from '@/app/workspace/[workspaceId]/home/compo
 import { ChatSurfaceProvider } from '@/app/workspace/[workspaceId]/home/components/chat-surface-context'
 import {
   assistantMessageHasRenderableContent,
+  getOrchestratorMessageText,
   MessageContent,
   type MessagePhase,
 } from '@/app/workspace/[workspaceId]/home/components/message-content'
@@ -29,6 +30,7 @@ import {
   parseLastCredentialTag,
   parseLastQuestionTag,
 } from '@/app/workspace/[workspaceId]/home/components/message-content/components/special-tags'
+import { toCopyableMarkdown } from '@/app/workspace/[workspaceId]/home/components/mothership-chat/copyable-markdown'
 import { nextSizerFloor } from '@/app/workspace/[workspaceId]/home/components/mothership-chat/sizer-floor'
 import { QueuedMessages } from '@/app/workspace/[workspaceId]/home/components/queued-messages'
 import {
@@ -225,6 +227,12 @@ const AssistantMessageRow = memo(function AssistantMessageRow({
     onAnimatingChangeRef.current?.(phase !== 'settled')
   }, [phase])
 
+  const getCopyContent = useCallback(
+    () => getOrchestratorMessageText(blocks, message.content),
+    [blocks, message.content]
+  )
+  const prepareContentForCopy = useCallback((content: string) => toCopyableMarkdown(content), [])
+
   const hasRenderableAssistant = assistantMessageHasRenderableContent(blocks, message.content ?? '')
   if (!hasRenderableAssistant && !trimmedContent && !isStreaming) {
     return null
@@ -281,6 +289,9 @@ const AssistantMessageRow = memo(function AssistantMessageRow({
           actionsEligible ? (
             <MessageActions
               content={message.content}
+              getCopyContent={getCopyContent}
+              hasCopyContent={Boolean(getOrchestratorMessageText(blocks, message.content).trim())}
+              prepareContentForCopy={prepareContentForCopy}
               userQuery={precedingUserContent}
               requestId={message.requestId}
               messageId={message.id}