codex/agentydragon/tasks/21-compact-markdown-rendering.md

---

id: 21 title: Compact Markdown Rendering Option status: Not started # one of: Not started, Started, Needs manual review, Done, Cancelled summary: Provide an option to render Markdown without blank lines between headings and content for more vertical packing. goal: | Add a configuration flag to control Markdown rendering in the chat UI and logs so that headings render immediately adjacent to their content with no separating blank line.

Acceptance Criteria

• Introduce a config flag markdown_compact = true|false under the UI settings.
• When enabled, the renderer omits the default blank line between headings (lines starting with #) and their subsequent content.
• The flag applies globally to all Markdown rendering (diffs, docs, help messages).
• Default behavior remains unchanged (blank lines preserved) when markdown_compact is false or unset.
• Add tests to verify both compact and default rendering modes across heading levels.

Implementation

How it was implemented

• Extend the Markdown-to-TUI formatter to check markdown_compact and collapse heading/content spacing.
• Implement a post-processing step that removes blank lines immediately following heading tokens (^#{1,6} ) when markdown_compact is true.
• Expose the new flag via the config parser and default it to false.
• Add unit tests covering H1–H6 headings, verifying absence of blank line in compact mode and presence in default mode.

Notes

• This option improves vertical density for screens with limited height.
• Ensure compatibility with existing Markdown features like lists and code blocks; only target heading-content spacing.