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#Markdown Formatting

The SDK normalizes markdown across all platforms using a CommonMark-based pipeline. Each adapter converts between the SDK's internal AST (Abstract Syntax Tree) and the platform's native format.

#Pipeline

User markdown text
       ↓
  CommonMark parser  (league/commonmark)
       ↓
  AST (Abstract Syntax Tree)
       ↓
  Adapter's FormatConverter
       ↓
  Platform-native format

#FormatConverter

Every adapter has a dedicated FormatConverter that implements BootDesk\ChatSDK\Core\Contracts\FormatConverter:

Adapter Class Output Format
Slack SlackFormatConverter mrkdwn
Telegram TelegramFormatConverter MarkdownV2
Discord DiscordFormatConverter Discord markdown
GitHub GitHubFormatConverter GitHub Flavored Markdown
Linear LinearFormatConverter Linear rich text
WhatsApp WhatsAppFormatConverter Plain text
Messenger MessengerFormatConverter Plain text
Telnyx TelnyxFormatConverter Plain text
Web WebFormatConverter HTML

#Key Methods

interface FormatConverter
{
    // Convert platform-native text to AST
    public function toAst(string $platformText): Document;

    // Convert AST back to platform-native text
    public function fromAst(Document $ast): string;

    // Strip all formatting, return plain text
    public function extractPlainText(string $platformText): string;

    // Render a PostableMessage to platform-native format
    public function renderPostable(PostableMessage $message): string;

    // Convert markdown to platform-native format directly
    public function fromMarkdown(string $markdown): string;
}

#Supported Markdown Features

Feature Markdown Slack Telegram Discord GitHub Linear Plain text
Bold **text** *text* **text** **text** **text** **text** text
Italic _text_ _text_ __text__ _text_ _text_ _text_ text
Strikethrough ~~text~~ ~text~ ~text~ ~~text~~ ~~text~~ ~~text~~ text
Inline Code `code` `code` `code` `code` `code` `code` code
Code Block ``` ... ``` ``` ... ``` ``` ... ``` ``` ... ``` ``` ... ``` ``` ... ``` ...
Links [text](url) <url|text> [text](url) [text](url) [text](url) [text](url) text (url)
Lists - item • item - item - item - item - item • item

#Plain Text Adapters

WhatsApp, Messenger, and Telnyx strip all markdown formatting and send plain text. Incoming markdown from these platforms is minimal (they don't support rich text input).

#Sending Markdown

When you use PostableMessage::text('**bold**'), the text is passed through fromMarkdown() of the target adapter, which converts it to the platform-native format before sending. You don't need to worry about platform-specific syntax.

When you use PostableMessage::markdown('**bold**'), it bypasses the markdown parser and sends the raw text as-is (useful when you already have platform-native formatting).

#Receiving Markdown

Incoming messages are parsed through toAst() which converts the platform's native format into the SDK's internal AST. Your handlers always receive clean, normalized text regardless of the source platform.

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