Project-Thoth/applications/chatgpt-capture/codex-work-orders/implementation/0004-markdown-normalizer.md

Implement Task 4 — Markdown Normalizer for the Project Thoth ChatGPT Capture Connector MVP.

Context:

• Task 3 now returns a ChatGPT capture payload with:
  • sourcePlatform
  • title
  • url
  • capturedAt
  • messages[]
• This task converts that extracted payload into canonical Project Thoth conversation.md format.
• Capture Connectors still only capture and transmit source material.
• Do not reason, summarize, classify, call LLMs, generate Project Thoth Source Metadata, generate Manifests, generate Harvests, or write to the vault.

Goal: Create a markdown normalization module that converts extracted ChatGPT messages into a single Markdown string.

Files to create or update:

• src/markdownNormalizer.js
• src/background.js only as needed to call the normalizer
• README.md only if testing instructions need updating

Expected input shape:

{ sourcePlatform: "ChatGPT", title: "Detected conversation title", url: "https://chatgpt.com/...", capturedAt: "2026-07-08T...", messages: [ { role: "user", content: "..." }, { role: "assistant", content: "..." } ] }

Expected Markdown output format:

Conversation Title

Captured: 2026-07-08T15:30:00.000Z Source Platform: ChatGPT Source URL: https://chatgpt.com/...

---

User

Message content

---

Assistant

Message content

---

Requirements:

1. Export a function named normalizeConversationToMarkdown(capturePayload).

2. Preserve message order exactly as received in capturePayload.messages.

3. Add a metadata header containing:

   • Title as H1
   • Captured timestamp
   • Source Platform
   • Source URL

4. Use speaker boundaries:

   • role: "user" → ## User
   • role: "assistant" → ## Assistant
   • role: "system" → ## System
   • any unknown or missing role → ## Unknown

5. Preserve message content as already extracted by the DOM extractor.

   • Do not summarize.
   • Do not rewrite.
   • Do not classify.
   • Do not run AI processing.
   • Do not alter code block contents.

6. Normalize only structural Markdown concerns:

   • Trim leading/trailing whitespace from each message.
   • Ensure exactly one blank line after headings.
   • Ensure --- separators between messages.
   • Ensure final output ends with a newline.
   • Avoid excessive blank lines caused by extraction artifacts.
   • Do not collapse intentional line breaks inside code fences.

7. Escape or sanitize the title only as needed for Markdown safety.

   • Remove excessive whitespace.
   • If no title exists, use "ChatGPT Conversation".

8. If messages is empty or missing:

   • Still produce a valid Markdown file.

   • Include the metadata header.

   • Add:

     Capture Notice

     No conversation messages were detected.

9. Include capture errors if present:

   • If capturePayload.error exists, include:

     Capture Error

10. Keep the module generic enough that later connectors can reuse the same normalizer with other source platforms.

Suggested implementation:

export function normalizeConversationToMarkdown(capturePayload) { // validate payload // normalize title // write metadata header // write optional error // write messages in order // return markdown string }

Suggested helper functions:

• normalizeTitle(title)
• normalizeRoleHeading(role)
• normalizeMessageContent(content)
• collapseExcessBlankLinesOutsideCodeBlocks(text)

Integration:

• In src/background.js, after receiving the capture payload from the content script, call normalizeConversationToMarkdown(payload).
• For now, log the Markdown output or hold it for Task 5 download writing.
• Do not implement the downloads API in this task unless it already exists from a previous step.

Acceptance criteria:

• A valid Markdown string is produced from a normal ChatGPT capture payload.
• Metadata header appears at the top.
• Message order is preserved.
• User and assistant sections are clearly separated.
• Code blocks remain intact.
• Empty captures produce a useful Markdown file with a Capture Notice.
• No LLM calls.
• No Project Thoth application dependency.
• No vault writes.