Project-Thoth/codex/chatgpt-capture-mvp/implementation/0003b-dom-to-markdown-conversion.md

Implement Task 3B — ChatGPT DOM-to-Markdown Conversion.

Context:

• Task 3A discovers all conversation-bearing containers.
• 3A prioritizes completeness and returns containers/messages with role, type, rawText, htmlSnippet, and debug data.
• This task improves formatting quality for discovered ChatGPT message containers.
• Do not change the 3A discovery strategy unless absolutely necessary.

Goal: Convert discovered ChatGPT message DOM content into readable Markdown while preserving source structure.

Primary rule: Do not lose content. If structured conversion fails, fall back to rawText.

Requirements:

1. Preserve paragraphs:

   • becomes one paragraph.

   • Paragraphs separated by one blank line.
   • Inline elements stay inline.

2. Preserve inline formatting:

   • / → text
   • / → text
   • inline → text
   • → text

3. Preserve lists:

   • • → - item
     • 1. → 1. item
       2. Preserve nested indentation where practical.

   • Preserve code blocks:

     •  → fenced Markdown.
       

     • Preserve code exactly.
     • Include language tag if detectable.

   • Preserve tables:

     • → Markdown table.
     • Use

     or first row as header. Escape pipe characters inside cells. Do not duplicate flattened table text. Preserve blockquotes: Prefix lines with >. Preserve headings: h1-h6 → Markdown headings. Fix spacing and punctuation: Do not put punctuation on its own line. Do not break around bold/italic/link spans. Keep em dashes inline. Collapse excessive blank lines outside code fences only. Preserve attachments/tool/artifact placeholders: If a container represents image generation, file upload, artifact, or tool output and cannot be fully converted, emit a readable placeholder plus rawText. Example: [Unsupported ChatGPT content: image generation] Keep conversion separate from discovery: discovery decides what containers exist. conversion decides how each container becomes Markdown. Suggested functions: containerToMarkdown(container) nodeToMarkdown(node, context) blockChildrenToMarkdown(node, context) inlineChildrenToMarkdown(node, context) listToMarkdown(listNode, context) tableToMarkdown(tableNode, context) codeBlockToMarkdown(preNode) linkToMarkdown(anchorNode, context) cleanupMarkdownOutsideCodeFences(markdown) Acceptance criteria: Previously discovered messages are still all present. Bold text exports as bold text. Links export as Markdown links. Tables export as Markdown tables. Lists remain lists. Code blocks remain fenced and unchanged. Paragraph breaks are preserved. No punctuation-only lines are introduced. Unknown/unsupported containers are not dropped. No LLM calls. No Project Thoth application dependency.