Title: Agent sentence-spacing instructions not verifiable / appear ignored in chat
Body:
User rule and chat both specify exact spacing after periods (single or double).
Chat markdown collapses consecutive spaces, so double-space output renders as single.
Agent also oscillated when rule text and user messages conflicted, instead of confirming with a space-preserving format (e.g. fenced code).
Expected: honor the rule; when spacing must be exact, show output in a format that preserves spaces; if the UI collapses spaces, say so.
Impact: repeated failed rewrites, wasted time/credits, looks like instruction-following failure.
I can file that via Cursor feedback if you want, or you can paste it into the bug report flow. For exact spacing from here on, I’ll put copy-paste text in code blocks only.
Steps to Reproduce
Set a preference or ask for two spaces after a period. It’s acceptable.
The chat transcript renders responses as Markdown, and consecutive spaces collapse when displayed, so double spacing after a period won’t show up in the rendered message.
A few ways to preserve the exact spacing:
Ask the agent to wrap the text in a fenced code block (as you’ve already started doing).
Have the agent write the text to a file.
Copy the chat message and paste it elsewhere. Te underlying text keeps the original spacing.
One caveat: rules can’t change how chat renders. A rule like “use two spaces after a period” will apply to file output and raw text, but it won’t be visible in rendered chat prose.
Could you tell us a bit more about your use case? Are you looking for two-space sentence spacing in the chat display itself as a personal formatting preference, or is the spacing getting lost when you copy a response out of chat and paste it somewhere else? If it’s the latter, that sounds like a bug we’d want to dig into, so any details on where you’re pasting would help.
I guess the key thing you said that we can’t debate is that Markdown will strip it. I’ve read further on it. This is a style of writing that many people were taught with and an old habit to break, but I guess I will have to. I’ve seen many docs for government agencies, etc., that do still require it, too. But again, I guess this is a battle lost within technology. Thanks for the response.