Adopt quadraui render_markdown_to_styled for hover popups — 0 uses today, ~350 lines of regex markdown

[JDonaghy]

Problem

quadraui ships compose/markdown.rs (2,147 lines) — render_markdown_to_styled, landed 2026-05-30 (quadraui#262).

grep -rn render_markdown_to_styled src/ → 0 uses.

vimcode hand-rolls ~350 lines of regex-based markdown:

• src/render.rs:18140-18356 — md_inline_spans (217 lines, regex-based)
• md_spans_to_styled (~81)
• src/render.rs:1369 — markdown_rendered_to_quadraui_lines (~39)
• md_links_to_quadraui_rich_text_links (~16)

Plus src/core/markdown.rs (760 lines, pulldown-cmark), consumed by src/core/engine/buffers.rs:453-561 and ext_panel.rs:631.

Scope — split by consumer

In scope: the hover-popup / RichTextPopup path. That is generic markdown rendering and belongs upstream.

Out of scope: the editor-buffer inline highlighter. src/render.rs:18142 documents that it "compensates for not having tree-sitter inline injection" — that is editor-specific and correctly placed. Do not remove it.

src/core/markdown.rs (pulldown-cmark) and compose/markdown.rs may not be functionally substitutable; verify feature parity before deleting anything, and if they diverge, report which and leave the local one.

Acceptance

• Black-box tests required, both backends: hover a symbol with markdown documentation, assert the rendered popup (bold, code spans, links) matches across backends.
• State in the PR that the new tests fail against unfixed develop.

[JDonaghy]

Before you start: re-verify the citations, do not trust them

Every file:line in this issue was measured on develop @ ee26268 (2026-09-04) by an audit, not by reading the tree you will check out.

They will have drifted by the time you pick this up. This issue sits in a serialised chain, and several entries ahead of it move code on purpose — #812 deletes ~1,300 lines from src/render.rs, #813 retypes fields in src/app.rs, #785 and #814 delete whole functions. Anything filed after those shifts.

So:

• Locate by symbol, not by line. grep -n "fn build_screen_layout_with_breadcrumb_row" src/render.rs, not "go to line 12886". GOALS.md already carries this rule for the same reason — it cites no line numbers on purpose.
• Re-measure any count before you use it. Line totals here came from python3 scripts/prod_lines.py and scripts/native_lines.py at a named revision. Re-run them rather than quoting the number in this issue. GOALS.md: "regenerate them with the script rather than trusting the table."
• Size the branch from what you find, not from the figure here. The counts are evidence that a problem is large, not estimates of a diff.

If a finding does not reproduce, say so — that is a useful result

This issue was generated from an automated audit. Some of its claims are wrong. Today alone, two confident findings in the same audit chain did not survive checking: a "1,671 byte-identical lines" figure measured out at ~85, and a "zero commits of pin lag" reading was taken against a stale local ref and was actually 42.

If the problem described here is already fixed, was never real, or is real but different from the description: comment with what you actually found and stop. Do not implement around a bad premise to make the issue closeable. A correction is worth more than a merged PR built on a wrong claim.

[JDonaghy]

Coordinator Assignment

Machine: dellserver
Repo: vimcode
Files: (unspecified)
Do not touch: (nothing else in flight)

Briefing

Issue #821: Adopt quadraui render_markdown_to_styled for hover popups — 0 uses today, ~350 lines of regex markdown

Problem

quadraui ships compose/markdown.rs (2,147 lines) — render_markdown_to_styled, landed 2026-05-30 (quadraui#262).

grep -rn render_markdown_to_styled src/ → 0 uses.

vimcode hand-rolls ~350 lines of regex-based markdown:

• src/render.rs:18140-18356 — md_inline_spans (217 lines, regex-based)
• md_spans_to_styled (~81)
• src/render.rs:1369 — markdown_rendered_to_quadraui_lines (~39)
• md_links_to_quadraui_rich_text_links (~16)

Plus src/core/markdown.rs (760 lines, pulldown-cmark), consumed by src/core/engine/buffers.rs:453-561 and ext_panel.rs:631.

Scope — split by consumer

In scope: the hover-popup / RichTextPopup path. That is generic markdown rendering and belongs upstream.

Out of scope: the editor-buffer inline highlighter. src/render.rs:18142 documents that it "compensates for not having tree-sitter inline injection" — that is editor-specific and correctly placed. Do not remove it.

src/core/markdown.rs (pulldown-cmark) and compose/markdown.rs may not be functionally substitutable; verify feature parity before deleting anything, and if they diverge, report which and leave the local one.

Acceptance

• Black-box tests required, both backends: hover a symbol with markdown documentation, assert the rendered popup (bold, code spans, links) matches across backends.
• State in the PR that the new tests fail against unfixed develop.

[JDonaghy]

Coordinator: Assignment Complete

Machine: dellserver
Status: done
Exit code: 0
Duration: 44m 7s
Log: /home/john/.coord/logs/590905f28b32.log

[JDonaghy]

Coordinator: Assignment Complete

Machine: precision
Status: done
Exit code: 0
Duration: 4m 1s
Log: /home/john/.coord/logs/acf3f2e1ba35.log

[JDonaghy]

Coordinator Assignment

Machine: dellserver
Repo: vimcode
Files: (unspecified)
Do not touch: (nothing else in flight)

Briefing

You are fixing a failed smoke test for issue #821: Adopt quadraui render_markdown_to_styled for hover popups — 0 uses today, ~350 lines of regex markdown

The previous worker created branch issue-821-adopt-quadraui-render-markdown-to-styled. You are already on that branch.
Do NOT start over — work from the existing code.

What was done

The previous worker's changes are already committed on this branch.
Run git fetch origin && git log --oneline origin/develop..HEAD to see what was done.
Run git diff origin/develop...HEAD to see the full diff.

Test failure

headless smoke: cargo test fails to compile — tests/ext_panel.rs references removed field EditorHoverPopup.rendered (E0609, 3 errors) after the hover popup was restructured to use quadraui's render_markdown_to_styled

Guidance

Fix the failing tests and push.

Rules

• Do NOT start over or rewrite from scratch
• Fix the specific test failures
• Commit your fixes and push with git push origin HEAD

[JDonaghy]

Coordinator: Assignment Complete

Machine: dellserver
Status: done
Exit code: 0
Duration: 8m 38s
Log: /home/john/.coord/logs/2898c48cdaf3.log

[JDonaghy]

Coordinator: Assignment Complete

Machine: dellserver
Status: done
Exit code: 0
Duration: 8m 12s
Log: /home/john/.coord/logs/44dce1b1e6d3.log

[JDonaghy]

Coordinator Assignment

Machine: dellserver
Repo: vimcode
Files: (unspecified)
Do not touch: (nothing else in flight)

Briefing

You are fixing a failed smoke test for issue #821: Adopt quadraui render_markdown_to_styled for hover popups — 0 uses today, ~350 lines of regex markdown

The previous worker created branch issue-821-adopt-quadraui-render-markdown-to-styled. You are already on that branch.
Do NOT start over — work from the existing code.

What was done

The previous worker's changes are already committed on this branch.
Run git fetch origin && git log --oneline origin/develop..HEAD to see what was done.
Run git diff origin/develop...HEAD to see the full diff.

Test failure

cargo test: 1 failure - tui_main::shell_app::tests::group_divider_drag_moves_the_painted_divider_via_shell_app panicked at src/tui_main/shell_app.rs:5139 (divider col 46 vs drag col 48 mismatch); 2669 passed, 1 failed, 1 ignored

Guidance

Fix the failing tests and push.

Rules

• Do NOT start over or rewrite from scratch
• Fix the specific test failures
• Commit your fixes and push with git push origin HEAD