Telegram-iOS/docs/instantpage-richtext.md

InstantPage V2 & rich-text message rendering

This file documents the rich-text message pipeline and the InstantPage V2 renderer that backs it.

A rich message is a RichTextMessageAttribute carrying an InstantPage (sent with text: ""), produced when typed markdown contains structure the regular message-entity set can't represent (headings, lists, tables, formulas, nested blockquotes) and drawn by ChatMessageRichDataBubbleContentNode via the InstantPage V2 layout/renderer — including AI-streaming progressive reveal, inline custom emoji, and entity (mention / hashtag / …) cases. It also covers the send / edit / copy / paste round-trips between markdown and InstantPage.

These are detailed, non-obvious invariants — read the relevant section before touching the corresponding code. (Moved out of CLAUDE.md to keep that file focused; CLAUDE.md retains a brief pointer back to here.)

AI streaming animation (rich-text bubbles)

ChatMessageRichDataBubbleContentNode progressively reveals InstantPage V2 content while TypingDraftMessageAttribute is on the message. Mirrors the older animation in ChatMessageTextBubbleContentNode, adapted to the heterogeneous V2 layout. The "Thinking…" indicator is now server-sent as InstantPageBlock.thinking rendered inside the pageView (see "InstantPage thinking blocks" section).

Where things live

File	Responsibility
submodules/TelegramUI/Components/StreamingTextReveal/Sources/TextRevealController.swift	Pacing controller, shared by both bubbles. EWMA inter-arrival → velocity-smoothed cursor.
submodules/InstantPageUI/Sources/InstantPageRenderer.swift (InstantPageV2TextView)	Drawing split: private TextRenderView does draw(_) inside a renderContainer whose layer carries a revealMaskLayer; new chars spawn cropped SnippetLayer siblings of the render container that animate in (blur + alpha + scale + position) and are absorbed into the mask on completion. Ported from InteractiveTextComponent.
submodules/InstantPageUI/Sources/InstantPageV2RevealCost.swift	InstantPageV2RevealCostMap + InstantPageV2View.applyReveal(revealedCount:costMap:animated:). Bridges the global width-based cursor to per-text-view char counts (via charCountForWidthBudget) and per-item visibility / table-row pop-in.
submodules/InstantPageUI/Sources/InstantPageV2Layout.swift	InstantPageTextLine.characterRects (line-local CT coords, baseline-relative positive-up) populated when computeRevealCharacterRects: true is passed to layoutInstantPageV2(...). Uses CTFontGetBoundingRectsForGlyphs for actual glyph ink, not advance widths.
submodules/TelegramUI/Components/Chat/ChatMessageRichDataBubbleContentNode/...	Streaming detection (TypingDraftMessageAttribute), display-link wiring, container sizing. The hardcoded "Thinking…" header was removed; thinking is now rendered by the pageView via InstantPageBlock.thinking.

Non-obvious invariants

• Cost unit is points of width, not characters. Each item's cost = its width in points along the reading direction. Text contributes sum of glyph ink widths; non-text items contribute frame.width. Table cells are floored at cell.frame.width so narrow- or empty-cell tables don't race through the cursor. Reveal pace becomes "points per second" — uniform across content types.
• Mask uses per-glyph ink bounds, unioned per line. Each revealed glyph's mask rect comes from CTFontGetBoundingRectsForGlyphs (not advance widths) so italics, accents, descenders are covered exactly. Per line, glyphs are unioned into one mask rect; consecutive fully-revealed lines union further — fully-revealed prefix is always one CALayer.
• containerNode does ALL the clipping. During streaming, containerNode is sized to revealedItemsMaxY (no header offset, no closing pad; streamingHeaderOffset is 0.0). The bubble itself is taller (revealedContentSize.height + 2) — the strip below containerNode is empty bubble background. pageView keeps its full pageLayout.contentSize; anything past containerNode's bottom is clipped at containerNode (clipsToBounds = true set in init). Do NOT shorten the pageView or set pageView.clipsToBounds.
• The pageView is REUSED across stableVersion bumps for the same message id. ensurePageView calls existing.renderContext?.updateContent(webpage:) (where webpage is now a public private(set) var with an updateContent mutator) and returns the existing view; update(layout:) then diffs item views by stable id, tearing down only views whose block was removed. The pageView is rebuilt only when the bubble is recycled with a different message or webpage. The reveal cursor on TextRevealController persists across chunks; the seed re-apply (applyReveal(revealedCount: previousAnimateGlyphCount, …, animated: false)) is now a continuation from the reused views' state, eliminating the per-chunk flash-of-full-text-then-mask that required the earlier from-scratch re-seed.
• Layout cache key includes message.stableVersion. Each AI chunk bumps stableVersion; without this the cached layout would shadow newly-arrived content.
• TypingDraftMessageAttribute is the streaming gate. Same trigger TextBubble uses. The InstantPage's isComplete flag is informational only.
• Width-based cost → char count bridge. Mask APIs (updateRevealCharacterCount) still take character counts. applyRevealEntry calls charCountForWidthBudget(textItem:widthBudget:) to translate the width-based local cursor into the per-text-view character count.
• The hardcoded "Thinking…" header was removed. streamingStatusTextNode, streamingStatusShimmerView, and the header-layout machinery no longer exist. streamingHeaderOffset is now a constant 0.0 — the pageView starts at the top of the bubble. The "Thinking…" indicator is now server-sent as InstantPageBlock.thinking and rendered inside the pageView (see "InstantPage thinking blocks" section below).
• Display-link tick re-layouts on extent change. Tick reads revealedContentSize at the new cursor; if the height differs from the previous cursor, calls requestFullUpdate. So the bubble grows in flight when the cursor crosses a line/item boundary, not just between chunks. Tick passes animated: true to applyReveal to fire the snippet pop-in.

Status node (date/time/checks) positioning

The ChatMessageDateAndStatusNode mirrors TextBubble's placement, adapted to the heterogeneous V2 layout. The node is a child of self (the content node), not of the clipping containerNode, so it is never clipped — the bubble height must be grown to contain it.

• X is a fixed left edge, not the last line's minX. Anchor x = pageHorizontalInset (10pt, the page layout's text inset; pageView sits at self-x 0). The status layout is measured with boundingWidth - 2·pageHorizontalInset (mirrors TextBubble's boundingWidth - sideInsets) so the right-aligned date lands at the right inset instead of off the bubble. Using lastTextLineFrame.minX (which is large for nested/indented last lines) shoved the date off to the right.
• Trail the last line only when the bottom-most item is text. lastTextLineFrameIfLastItemIsText(in:) (in InstantPageV2Layout.swift) returns the last line frame only when the bottom-most top-level item (max maxY) is a .text; otherwise nil, so the date wraps below all content (anchored at contentSize.height). For tables/images/etc. the date must not trail text buried above the final item.
• InstantPage draws the baseline at the line frame's maxY (InstantPageRenderer draws each line at lineOrigin.y + lineFrame.height), so the visible text of a plain line sits ~5pt below maxY. A date that trails on the line (statusHeight == 0) adds trailingBottomPadding (5pt) to align with the text; a date that wraps onto its own line below (statusHeight > 0) sits at the bare maxY. The pad is 0 for lines taller than their font line height (a tall inline attachment, e.g. a formula, already pushes maxY down). lastTextLineFrameIfLastItemIsText returns (frame, trailingBottomPadding); the bubble applies the pad only in the trailing case.
• Bubble height leaves ~6pt below the date. One unified formula for all cases: boundingSize.height = max(boundingSize.height, statusBottomEdge + 6.0), where statusBottomEdge = statusAnchorY + max(1, statusHeight). The statusAnchorY in the measure (continue) closure must mirror the statusFrameY in the apply closure exactly, or the date will be clipped/misplaced. (streamingHeaderOffset is 0.0 — there is no header offset to add.) 6pt matches TextBubble's bottom bubble inset.
• hasDraft adds the same 6pt at the streaming site. The status max() above is gated by !hasDraft, so during streaming (status hidden, alpha=0) it can't supply the bubble's bottom inset. A separate boundingSize.height += 6.0 inside if hasDraft in the SizeBlock closure does it instead — same 6pt, so the streaming bubble's bottom breathing room matches its post-stream height and there's no 6pt grow-pop when the status node fades in at finalize. The hadDraft && !hasDraft finalize pass doesn't need it because !hasDraft re-enables the status max(). If you ever refactor the +6.0 constant out of the status max() into a bottomInset (TextBubble's pattern), kill this separate term at the same time — they're two ends of the same invariant.

InstantPage V2 table — flush frame, inset borders, rounded corners

A V2 .table block's item frame is full-width / flush with the bubble interior (so a horizontally-scrollable wide table's scroll container bleeds edge-to-edge), but the actual grid borders start at the body-text side inset — matching the V1 renderer. The grid card also has a 10pt rounded outer border.

Non-obvious invariants

• InstantPageV2TableItem.contentInset (= page horizontalInset) is the linchpin. layoutTable (InstantPageV2Layout.swift) sizes columns against contentBoundingWidth = boundingWidth − horizontalInset·2 (so a fitting table aligns with body text on both sides) and stores contentInset on the item; the item frame.width is the flush boundingWidth, and contentSize.width stays the bare grid width (totalWidth, no inset).
• The renderer (InstantPageV2TableView) realizes the inset as a view shift, not baked coordinates. In init AND update it shifts the grid contentView to x: contentInset, sets scrollView.contentSize.width = contentSize.width + contentInset * 2.0 (margin on both sides, mirroring V1's InstantPageScrollableNode), and scrollView.clipsToBounds = true. Cells, inner border lines, and the title stay x=0-relative inside contentView, so the single shift carries them all; the rounded outer border is contentView.layer's own border (see below), which wraps the shifted layer automatically.
• Scrollable tables clip to the full width with no inset on the clip. The inset lives inside the scroll content as a symmetric margin on both sides (contentInset * 2.0): a fitting table (grid + 2·inset ≤ boundingWidth) doesn't scroll and shows both-side inset; an overflowing table rests with its left border at the inset and scrolls until its right border reaches a matching trailing inset (it does not jam flush against the screen edge — matches V1). The scroll-indicator threshold and contentSize.width use the same + contentInset * 2.0, so "does it scroll" is exactly grid > boundingWidth − 2·inset.
• Manual cell-coordinate helpers MUST add contentInset. Because the shift is a real contentView frame change, UIKit hitTest and self.convert(_:to:) paths (propagateVisibilityRect, the row-reveal mask) handle it automatically — but the manual coordinate helpers findTextItem / collectSelectableTextItems (the live tap / URL / text-selection path) compute cell/title positions arithmetically and must add table.contentInset to the x-offset, or in-cell hit-testing is off by the inset. (These helpers still do not account for the table's live horizontal scrollView.contentOffset — a pre-existing limitation, so in-cell hit-testing is only correct at scroll offset 0.) The dead-but-symmetric lastTextLineFrame(in:) table branch has the same omission but has no callers.
• The 10pt rounded outer border is contentView.layer's own border, NOT sublayers. v2TableCornerRadius = 10.0 (InstantPageV2Layout.swift). The renderer sets contentView.layer.cornerRadius/borderColor/borderWidth = bordered ? v2TableBorderWidth : 0.0 in BOTH init and update (the four straight outer-edge rect layers were removed; lineLayers now holds only inner grid lines). Border-only — deliberately no masksToBounds: cornerRadius rounds the layer's border without clipping contents (filled corner cells round their own fills separately — see next bullet), and there is zero interaction with the streaming reveal mask (contentView.layer.mask, set only during AI streaming) — the border reveals row-by-row with the rows and is part of the masked layer. The rounded card belongs to the grid (scrolls with it). For a non-empty-title table (never produced by markdown/AI), the border wraps title+grid since contentView includes the title region — an accepted, approved nuance.
• Filled corner cells round their own fills to match the border. A header/striped cell's background is a stripe CALayer; tableStripeCornerMask(cellFrame:gridWidth:gridHeight:effectiveBorderWidth:) detects which grid corners the cell's (grid-local) frame touches — firstCol/firstRow via frame.min{X,Y} <= effectiveBorderWidth/2 + 0.5, lastCol/lastRow via frame.max{X,Y} >= grid{Width,Height} - … (gridWidth = item.contentSize.width, gridHeight = item.contentSize.height - gridOffsetY) — and rounds only those corners: stripe.cornerRadius = max(0, v2TableCornerRadius - effectiveBorderWidth) (the -borderWidth leaves an even border ring; borderless → full radius) + stripe.maskedCorners, in BOTH init and update. A CALayer's backgroundColor honors cornerRadius+maskedCorners with no masksToBounds. A full-width (colspan) header rounds both top corners; a one-row filled table rounds all four; bottom corners round only when the last row is filled. The empty-mask branch resets cornerRadius = 0 and maskedCorners = [] so reused stripes (persist across streaming chunks) don't keep stale rounding. Detection is grid-local, so it's independent of the contentInset shift / horizontal scroll.

InstantPage V2 block media — flush (edge-to-edge), un-rounded

Every V2 block-media kind except .audio lays out flush with the bubble interior (0 inset, full bounding width) and un-rounded (cornerRadius 0). The bubble's existing rounded clipping container rounds any media that meets the bubble's top/bottom edge. V1 (InstantPageLayout.swift) is unchanged. (Audio keeps the legacy inset + 8pt rounding.)

Where things live

File	Responsibility
submodules/InstantPageUI/Sources/InstantPageV2Layout.swift	instantPageV2MediaFrame(naturalSize:flush:cornerRadius:boundingWidth:horizontalInset:) — the shared frame helper; instantPageV2MediaEdgeBleed constant; the flush: Bool parameter on layoutTypedMediaWithCaption (image/video/webEmbed-cover/map) and layoutMediaWithCaption (audio/webEmbed-placeholder/postEmbed/collage/slideshow/channelBanner/relatedArticles).
submodules/InstantPageUI/Sources/InstantPageV2MediaViews.swift, …/InstantPageRenderer.swift (InstantPageV2MediaPlaceholderView)	Renderer — no change needed: every media view + the placeholder view already does clipsToBounds = item.cornerRadius > 0.0, so cornerRadius 0 means the view doesn't self-clip; the bubble's containerNode clips.
…/Chat/ChatMessageRichDataBubbleContentNode/…	The clipping container: containerNode (clipsToBounds = true, cornerRadius = layoutConstants.image.defaultCornerRadius ≈ 15–16pt) is what rounds flush media at the bubble edge.

Non-obvious invariants

• flush is a parameter, not inferred from cornerRadius. All media call sites pass flush: true except .audio (flush: false). On the flush path the helper forces the returned corner radius to 0 regardless of the caller's cornerRadius argument (the legacy 8.0/0.0 args at the call sites are now inert on the flush path — kept as-is, documented in the helper).
• Small images are NOT upscaled. The scale = min(availableWidth / naturalSize.width, 1.0) cap is kept (now against availableWidth = boundingWidth). A small image stays at natural size, flush-left at x = 0 (not stretched to full width). Large images (the common server/AI case) fill the width.
• Full-width media bleeds instantPageV2MediaEdgeBleed (4pt) past the trailing edge. The pageView sits at x: -1 inside containerNode (a border-hiding hairline), so a frame at x: 0, width: boundingWidth falls ~1px short of the container's right rounded-clip edge → a 1px corner notch. A small over-bleed on full-width items only (fillsWidth = scaledSize.width >= availableWidth - 1.0) closes it; a genuinely small image gets no bleed. The bleed never widens the bubble because layoutInstantPageV2 clamps contentSize.width = min(maxX, boundingWidth) (gated by context.fitToWidth, which both callers — the rich bubble and the send preview — pass true).
• Captions stay inset. layoutCaptionAndCredit is still called with the page horizontalInset and offset by the un-bled scaledSize.height; the caption/credit text is inset under a full-bleed image. The isCover && captionHeight > 0 cover-padding block is unchanged.
• Audio is the lone exception and routes through the non-flush branch of instantPageV2MediaFrame (inset by horizontalInset, caller's cornerRadius), reproducing the legacy behavior exactly.

InstantPage V2 text item height (true font line box)

layoutTextItem (InstantPageV2Layout.swift) sizes a .text item to the true font line height, not the cap box. A single-line item measures exactly fontAscent + fontDescentBelowBaseline (A + D); the old behavior was the cap box fontLineHeight = floor(fontAscent + fontDescent) (A − D).

Non-obvious invariants

• Two edits in layoutTextItem: the line stack starts at lineBoxTopInset = max(0, fontAscent − fontLineHeight) (was 0), and the returned height is lines.last.frame.maxY + extraDescent + fontDescentBelowBaseline (the + fontDescentBelowBaseline contains the last line's descender). Net: every text item grows ~(A − L) + D (~8pt @17pt) and its glyphs draw ~lineBoxTopInset (~4pt) lower within their box; the page grows.
• Per-line frames stay the cap box (height = lineAscent = fontLineHeight). Only the stack's starting origin moves and the total is padded — so the baseline is still drawn at each line frame's maxY, inter-line advance (lineAscent + fontLineSpacing + extraDescent) is unchanged, and decorations / inline attachments / characterRect / the reveal mask (all line-frame-relative) translate consistently.
• lineBoxTopInset is exact, NOT pixel-snapped — it is an intra-item line offset; crispness rides on the item's own pixel-snapped frame origin (intra-item line positions may already be fractional, e.g. after a non-integral extraDescent).
• Formulas / tall inline content still inflate via lineAscent/extraDescent; the "\u{200b}"+anchors height = 0 case is preserved.
• Inline custom emoji are sized to ≈ the line box so they fit the taller box rather than overflowing it (see "Inline custom emoji").

Inline custom emoji (RichText.textCustomEmoji)

RichText.textCustomEmoji(fileId:alt:) renders an inline animated custom emoji inside rich-data bubbles. Covers API parsing, Postbox + FlatBuffers serialization, and display in the InstantPage V2 renderer; the emoji participates in the streaming reveal above. (The send / edit / copy / paste round-trip that produces .textCustomEmoji from typed markdown is a separate section below: "Custom emoji in markdown messages".)

Where things live

File	Responsibility
submodules/TelegramCore/Sources/SyncCore/SyncCore_RichText.swift	Enum case textCustomEmoji(fileId: Int64, alt: String) + Postbox coding (discriminator 17, keys ce.f/ce.a), ==, plainText (returns alt), and FlatBuffers codec.
submodules/TelegramCore/FlatSerialization/Models/RichText.fbs	FlatBuffers schema — RichText_CustomEmoji union member + table. Source of truth; the Bazel flatc genrule regenerates *_generated.swift at build time (the checked-in Sources/*_generated.swift is stale).
submodules/TelegramCore/Sources/ApiUtils/RichText.swift	Api.RichText.textCustomEmoji ⇄ Swift, lossless both ways.
submodules/InstantPageUI/Sources/InstantPageTextItem.swift (attributedStringForRichText)	Emits a single placeholder char carrying ChatTextInputAttributes.customEmoji (a ChatTextInputTextCustomEmojiAttribute) + a CTRunDelegate sized to the font line height (font.ascender − font.descender + 4·pointSize/17 ≈ 24pt @17pt).
submodules/InstantPageUI/Sources/InstantPageV2Layout.swift (line-breaker)	Collects per-line InstantPageTextLine.emojiItems; overwrites each placeholder char's characterRect with a full cell (width = itemSize) so it feeds the reveal cost map.
submodules/InstantPageUI/Sources/InstantPageRenderer.swift (InstantPageV2View)	Owns the InlineStickerItemLayers: updateInlineEmoji (create/reuse/remove/position), updateEmojiReveal (reveal-driven pop-in), updateEmojiVisibility + propagateVisibilityRect. Layers attach to each text view's emojiContainerView.

Non-obvious invariants

• flatc casing/required gotchas. Edit RichText.fbs, not the generated Swift. Scalars (long) cannot be (required) — only strings/tables can. A union member RichText_CustomEmoji generates the Swift enum case .richtextCustomemoji (everything after the suffix's first letter is lowercased); the table type stays TelegramCore_RichText_CustomEmoji and field accessors keep .fbs casing (value.fileId). See the flatbuffers-codegen memory.
• ChatTextInputTextCustomEmojiAttribute is reused end-to-end (display layer ⇄ layout model). The attribute is written to the placeholder in attributedStringForRichText and read back by the V2 line-breaker under the SAME key (ChatTextInputAttributes.customEmoji); InlineStickerItemLayer.init consumes it directly and resolves the file lazily from fileId.
• Emoji participates in the streaming reveal. Its placeholder char's characterRect is overwritten to a full cell (width = itemSize), so the width-based cost map charges it like other content. updateEmojiReveal pops the layer in (alpha 0→1 + scale) when charIndexInItem < currentRevealCharacterCount; unrevealed → opacity 0.
• Inline emoji/images are CENTERED on the font line box, NOT baseline-aligned, and do NOT inflate the line. The line-breaker keeps lineAscent = fontLineHeight (only formulas grow it) and places each attachment at baselineY − fontLineHeight/2 − size/2, so it bleeds symmetrically about the line box instead of doubling the line height and shoving the text baseline down (the prior lineAscent = emoji.size behavior was a regression from V1 layoutTextItemWithString, which centers via (fontLineHeight − imageHeight)/2). Custom emoji are sized to ≈ the line box (size = font.ascender − font.descender + 4·pointSize/17) so they fit the true-font-height item box (see "InstantPage V2 text item height") with minimal bleed. Mirrors the chat InteractiveTextComponent. The cell's characterRect is centered the same way (y = fontLineHeight/2 − size/2) so the reveal mask (renderer: y = minY + lineAscent − rect.maxY) tracks it; a tall attachment grows extraDescent so the next line isn't overlapped. Three things must stay in lockstep: the display frame, the characterRect, and extraDescent.
• Layers sit ABOVE the reveal mask. They attach to InstantPageV2TextView.emojiContainerView (a sibling above renderContainer), NOT inside it — so the reveal mask wipes glyphs while emoji pop in independently. Adding a CTRunDelegate-glyph to the mask would clip-wipe them instead.
• Layers are owned by InstantPageV2View, not the text view. Keyed by InlineStickerItemLayer.Key(id: fileId, index: occurrence). The pageView is now REUSED across stableVersion bumps (see streaming section), so the inline-emoji dict PERSISTS across chunks; updateInlineEmoji prunes stale keys (emoji whose blocks have been removed) and creates/repositions layers for new or unchanged emoji each update pass.
• visibilityRect gates looping; nil means "not visible". The bubble's visibility override pushes a full-width sub-rect to the root pageView.visibilityRect, re-pushed in the apply closure after pageView.frame is set. propagateVisibilityRect converts the rect into each nested V2View's coordinate space (self.convert(_:to:)) for details bodies / table cells+title, fanning out via each child's didSet.
• CTRunDelegate extent buffers must be freed. Every inline-attachment arm (.image/.formula/.textCustomEmoji) in attributedStringForRichText allocates an extentBuffer; the dealloc callback must deallocate() it (it re-runs per layout pass).

RichText entity cases (mention / hashtag / bot command / bank card / auto link)

RichText.textMention, .textMentionName(text:peerId:), .textHashtag, .textCashtag, .textBotCommand, .textBankCard, .textAutoUrl, .textAutoEmail, .textAutoPhone render the message-entity flavors of rich text inside rich-data bubbles with full tap interaction mirroring ChatMessageTextBubbleContentNode. Covers API parsing, Postbox + FlatBuffers serialization, display, and tap routing. (textDate/textSpoiler remain unimplemented — .plain("").)

Where things live

File	Responsibility
submodules/TelegramCore/Sources/SyncCore/SyncCore_RichText.swift	The 9 enum cases (each wraps text: RichText; textMentionName adds raw peerId: Int64) + Postbox coding (discriminators 18–26, wrapped text under key "t", mention-name peerId under "mn.p"), ==, plainText, FlatBuffers codec.
submodules/TelegramCore/FlatSerialization/Models/RichText.fbs	Union members + tables (RichText_MentionName adds peerId:long). Source of truth — same flatc gotchas as the custom-emoji section above.
submodules/TelegramCore/Sources/ApiUtils/RichText.swift	Api.RichText ⇄ Swift, lossless. textMentionName carries userId ⇄ peerId.
submodules/InstantPageUI/Sources/InstantPageTextItem.swift (attributedStringForRichText)	Display: auto url/email/phone reuse the InstantPageUrlItem (url:) path; the six entity cases push .link(false), recurse, then attach the matching TelegramTextAttributes.* key over the produced range.
submodules/TelegramUI/Components/Chat/ChatMessageRichDataBubbleContentNode/...	Tap routing: entityForTapLocation reads the attribute dict at the tapped point; entityTapContent maps keys → ChatMessageBubbleContentTapAction.Content.

Non-obvious invariants

• Display attaches the same TelegramTextAttributes.* keys the chat text bubble uses; the bubble reads them back. Contract: textMention→PeerTextMention (String); textMentionName→PeerMention (TelegramPeerMention, peerId built as EnginePeer.Id(namespace: Namespaces.Peer.CloudUser, …) — InstantPageTextItem imports TelegramCore but NOT Postbox, so bare PeerId is out of scope); textHashtag AND textCashtag→Hashtag (TelegramHashtag; no dedicated cashtag key/tap-action — the leading $ distinguishes them); textBotCommand→BotCommand; textBankCard→BankCard. Auto url/email/phone go through the URL path (mailto:/tel:/raw), NOT an entity key.
• linkSelectionRects and the bubble tap path check all six interactive keys (URL + the five entity keys), not just URL, so press-highlight and the link-loading shimmer cover entities too.
• Rich-data text selection must reach a line's trailing edge. This is general to rich-data selection, not just entities: InstantPageTextItem.attributesAtPoint(_:orNearest:)'s orNearest: true (selection-drag) path returns line.range.upperBound (via CTLineGetStringRange) when the point is at/past lineFrame.maxX. TextSelectionNode uses that index as the exclusive upper bound, so clamping to the last character's index — as the orNearest: false hit-testing path correctly does — would leave the last character/item of every line unselectable. Mirrors Display.TextNode. Do not collapse the two orNearest paths back together.

Markdown send: entity vs. rich detection

On message send, the app auto-decides: if the typed markdown maps onto the regular message-entity set (bold/italic/code/strikethrough/spoiler/links/blockquote/fenced-code) it sends a normal message via the existing entity path; if it contains structure the entity set can't represent it sends a rich message (RichTextMessageAttribute carrying an InstantPage, rendered by ChatMessageRichDataBubbleContentNode). Always-on (no flag). Effective rich triggers are headings, lists, and tables only.

Where things live

File	Responsibility
submodules/BrowserUI/Sources/BrowserMarkdown.swift	The classifier richMarkdownAttributeIfNeeded(context:text:) (pre-filter markdownMightNeedRichLayout → parse via existing inputRichTextAttributeFromText → block inspection instantPageNeedsRichLayout/blockIsEntityExpressible/richTextIsEntityExpressible), plus the markdown→InstantPage conversion (markdownWebpage, markdownBlocks(from:), markdownBlocksWithGeneratedAnchors).
submodules/TelegramUI/Sources/ChatControllerNode.swift (sendCurrentMessage, ~line 4860)	The gate: if !isSpecialChatContents, let attribute = richMarkdownAttributeIfNeeded(context:, text: effectiveInputText.string) routes to the rich branch; the unchanged else is the entity path.

Non-obvious invariants

• Boundary rule: send rich iff the parse yields an InstantPageBlock with no entity equivalent. Entity-expressible whitelist (→ normal): .paragraph, .preformatted, .blockQuote (empty caption), .anchor, .unsupported, and .divider (--- is too common in casual text to trigger rich). .formula (block and inline) DOES trigger rich, gated by strict math detection (see "Formulas trigger rich messages" below) so casual $ usage ($5-$10, $FOO=$BAR) stays plain. So effective triggers = headings, lists, tables, formulas.
• Approach A (parse-then-inspect): the classifier reuses the real parser, so "what triggers rich" can't drift from "what the rich renderer shows." markdownMightNeedRichLayout is a cheap necessary-condition over-approximation — it may over-trigger a parse but must never false-negative. It detects #, list markers, dash-lines (-{1,}, which also catches setext-H2 underlines → heading blocks), \n= (setext H1), |, ![, and math delimiters $/\(/\[ (formulas now trigger rich; the strict detection step decides whether a $ run is actually math).
• Chat vs. document path = file == nil / context.documentURL == nil. inputRichTextAttributeFromText passes file: nil; the document-attachment path passes a real file. Two chat-only behaviors key off this: (a) generated heading anchors are skipped (markdownBlocksWithGeneratedAnchors runs only for documents — anchors exist for intra-document #slug links and otherwise prepend a spurious invisible .anchor block per heading); (b) a level-1 # heading maps to .heading(text:, level: 1), not .title (the document/article-title treatment). H2–H6 → .heading(level: 2…6) for both paths. This converter only ever emits .title (H1-doc) or .heading — never .header/.subheader.
• The classifier is fed the RAW effectiveInputText.string, not the post-convertMarkdownToAttributes inputText, so inline **bold** survives into the rich render. The entity branch still uses the converted inputText.
• Bypassed for .customChatContents (business links / quick replies) via isSpecialChatContents. The compose/send gate lives here; editing has its own symmetric re-classification — see "Editing rich messages" below.
• Transmission: RichTextMessageAttribute → Api.InputRichMessage via messages.sendMessage(richMessage:) (flag bit 23, StandaloneSendMessage.swift); recipients reconstruct it from the incoming richMessage field (StoreMessage_Telegram.swift). The rich branch sends text: "" + the attribute, nils mediaReference (no separate webpage preview), and bypasses 4096-char chunking. iOS < 15 / oversize markdown → inputRichTextAttributeFromText returns nil → entity path (which chunks).

Editing rich messages (InstantPage → markdown)

Rich messages (RichTextMessageAttribute, text == "") are made editable by reconstructing markdown source from the stored InstantPage, populating the editor with it, and re-classifying on save — the inverse of the send path above. Always-on (no flag). Images/videos are out of scope (skipped by the converter).

Where things live

File	Responsibility
submodules/BrowserUI/Sources/InstantPageToMarkdown.swift	markdownStringFromInstantPage(_:) — the inverse converter (block + inline + list + table + escaping). Pure, best-effort, never fails.
submodules/TelegramUI/Sources/Chat/ChatControllerLoadDisplayNode.swift	setupEditMessage: rich message → reconstruct markdown into the edit field. editMessage (save): re-classify the raw input, route rich-or-plain.
submodules/TelegramStringFormatting/Sources/InstantPagePreviewText.swift	previewText() extensions (RichText/InstantPage*) — one-line plaintext previews.
submodules/TelegramStringFormatting/Sources/MessageContentKind.swift	messageContentKind returns .text(instantPage.previewText()) for rich, cascading to all preview surfaces.

Non-obvious invariants

• The converter emits CommonMark inline, NOT the entity-regex dialect. **bold**, *italic*, `code`, ~~strike~~, [text](url) — because re-send re-parses the text through the rich path (richMarkdownAttributeIfNeeded → NSAttributedString(markdown:), Apple CommonMark), not convertMarkdownToAttributes (whose dialect is __italic__/||spoiler||). The two parsers disagree on __/*; the rich round-trip is the contract.
• Re-classify every edit (edit ≡ send). editMessage runs the same richMarkdownAttributeIfNeeded on the edit field's attributed text (so reattached custom emoji round-trip — see the custom-emoji section). Rich → pendingUpdateMessageManager.add(text: "", entities: nil, richText: attr, …); else the unchanged plain path. So normal→rich (add a table) and rich→plain (drop all triggers) both work. Bypassed for .customChatContents.
• Change-detection compares the rich attribute. The save guard adds currentRichText != richTextAttribute (rich branch — skips no-op rich edits) and currentRichText != nil (plain branch — so rich→plain still saves even when text.string looks unchanged). RichTextMessageAttribute is Equatable on instantPage.
• The text.length == 0 early-return guard is safe for rich. convertMarkdownToAttributes only rewrites inline tokens, never strips #/-/|, so a rich message's markdown source stays non-empty and passes; the rich branch then sends text: "".
• Known limitation: a rich→plain edit that leaves only inline-formatted text loses *italic* (the entity path recognizes only __…__). Rare edge; the rich round-trip contract holds.
• previewText() lives in TelegramStringFormatting, not TextFormat/TelegramCore. It will gain a strings: PresentationStrings param (to localize the "Photo"/"Video"/"Table" placeholders), so it must sit in a UI-string module — messageContentKind/descriptionStringForMessage (same module) already take strings:. Teaching messageContentKind about rich cascades the preview to the edit accessory panel, reply/pinned panels, and forward preview in one place (those surfaces need no individual change).

Copying rich messages as markdown (whole message + partial selection)

Rich messages (RichTextMessageAttribute, text == "") are copyable as markdown two ways: the context-menu Copy action copies the whole message; a text selection inside the rich-data bubble copies just the selected range. Both reconstruct markdown that mirrors the edit round-trip (markdownStringFromInstantPage). Always-on.

Where things live

File	Responsibility
submodules/TelegramUI/Sources/ChatInterfaceStateContextMenus.swift	Whole-message Copy. Computes richMessageMarkdown from the message's RichTextMessageAttribute.instantPage (after let message = messages[0]), opens the Copy gate with richMessageMarkdown != nil, and short-circuits copyTextWithEntities to storeMessageTextInPasteboard(markdown, entities: nil).
submodules/BrowserUI/Sources/InstantPageToMarkdown.swift	markdownStringFromInstantPage — the block-tree → markdown converter (also used by the edit round-trip). Blocks joined by \n\n; nested blockquotes via recursive > wrapping.
submodules/InstantPageUI/Sources/InstantPageTextItem.swift	InstantPageMarkdownBlockContext (kind + quoteDepth) and the markdownContext: InstantPageMarkdownBlockContext? field on InstantPageTextItem.
submodules/InstantPageUI/Sources/InstantPageV2Layout.swift	stampMarkdownContext/bumpQuoteDepth; stamps markdownContext during layout (heading/title/code/list/blockQuote/layoutQuoteText/table-cell).
submodules/InstantPageUI/Sources/InstantPageMultiTextAdapter.swift	markdownForRange(_ range: NSRange) + the private attributed-substring→inline-markdown converter inlineMarkdown(from:).
submodules/TelegramUI/Components/Chat/ChatMessageRichDataBubbleContentNode/.../ChatMessageRichDataBubbleContentNode.swift	Intercepts .copy in the TextSelectionNode performAction closure: textSelectionNode.getSelection() → adapter.markdownForRange(range) → stores as plain NSAttributedString(string:).

Non-obvious invariants

• The V2 layout discards block role. A .text layout item from an H2 heading is byte-identical to a body paragraph — heading level and the title category are dropped with no back-reference to the source InstantPageBlock. Precise structural markdown for a selection therefore requires stamping markdownContext at layout time (lists/code/tables/details are structurally recoverable; heading level and .title are not, so they MUST be stamped). Plain paragraphs stay nil (≡ plain).
• quoteDepth is orthogonal to kind so a heading/list/code line inside a blockquote round-trips (e.g. > ## Title). bumpQuoteDepth lifts a quote's children by 1; nested quotes accumulate. layoutQuoteText (single-paragraph blockquote fast path AND .pullQuote) bumps once — it is never reached by the multi-block recursion, so no double-count.
• A blockquote is exploded into one text item per line. markdownForRange must re-coalesce a run of consecutive quoteDepth > 0 segments into ONE \n-joined block (each line prefixed at its own depth); otherwise every quote line becomes its own block separated by a blank line. Code/table/list runs are likewise coalesced (one fence; one pipe table; one tight list).
• Both converters emit compact nested-quote markers (>>, not > >). Selection: String(repeating: ">", count: depth) + " ". Whole-message: when wrapping a line that already starts with >, prepend a bare >. Keep the two in sync.
• Inline markdown is read from display attributes, not the RichText tree. inlineMarkdown inspects the slice's UIFont (bold/italic/mono — font-based, no symbolic-trait flag for named fonts), .strikethroughStyle, and TelegramTextAttributes.URL (→ InstantPageUrlItem.url, angle-bracketed if it contains (/)/space). Custom-emoji placeholders now emit the [<alt>](tg://emoji?id=…) marker from the display attribute's fileId (alt is best-effort — the display placeholder may be a bare space; see the custom-emoji round-trip section).
• .copy stores plain text. Passing NSAttributedString(string: markdown) through the existing performTextSelectionAction(.copy) path (storeAttributedTextInPasteboard) generates no entities, so the literal **/#/>/| survive. The whole-message Copy uses storeMessageTextInPasteboard(_, entities: nil) directly.
• Fidelity caveats (intentional): custom emoji are now preserved as [<alt>](tg://emoji?id=…) markers (selection copy uses a best-effort alt — see the custom-emoji round-trip section below); ordered list + checkbox loses the ordinal (- wins); a partial table selection emits touched cells as rows (no forced header --- separator); block prefixes apply to the whole touched line on a mid-line selection (correct markdown).

Custom emoji in markdown messages (send + edit/copy/paste round-trip)

Custom emoji typed into the compose field survive when a message is sent as a rich message (heading/list/table/formula), rendering as RichText.textCustomEmoji (the display side is the "Inline custom emoji" section above). The carrier across Apple's CommonMark parser is a shared markdown-link marker [<alt>](tg://emoji?id=<fileId>), used identically by the forward (send) and reverse (edit/copy/paste) paths so encode and decode cannot drift. Always-on. Scope: only rich messages — a custom emoji alone never forces a rich message (it stays on the entity path as a .CustomEmoji entity, the pre-existing behavior).

Where things live

File	Responsibility
submodules/TextFormat/Sources/CustomEmojiMarkdownMarker.swift	The marker format — single source of truth: customEmojiMarkdownURL(fileId:), parseCustomEmojiFileId(fromMarkdownURL:), escapeCustomEmojiMarkdownAlt(_:), and chatInputTextWithReattachedCustomEmoji(_:) (markers → live customEmoji attributes). In TextFormat so both BrowserUI and InstantPageUI can import it.
submodules/BrowserUI/Sources/BrowserMarkdown.swift	Forward: markdownSourceInjectingCustomEmojiMarkers rewrites each customEmoji run into the marker; richMarkdownAttributeIfNeeded(context:attributedText:) (signature changed from text:); the marker-URL intercept in markdownInlineContent → .textCustomEmoji.
submodules/BrowserUI/Sources/InstantPageToMarkdown.swift	Reverse (whole-message copy + edit reconstruction): .textCustomEmoji → emit the marker.
submodules/InstantPageUI/Sources/InstantPageMultiTextAdapter.swift	Reverse (text-selection copy): emit the marker from the display attribute's fileId (alt best-effort).
submodules/TelegramUI/Sources/ChatControllerNode.swift, …/Chat/ChatMessageDisplaySendMessageOptions.swift	Send + send-options-preview call sites pass the NSAttributedString (effectiveInputText / textInputView.attributedText); the rich send now passes inlineStickers.
submodules/TelegramUI/Sources/Chat/ChatControllerLoadDisplayNode.swift	Edit-load (setupEditMessage) reattaches markers via chatInputTextWithReattachedCustomEmoji; edit-save (editMessage) re-classifies the attributed edit text.
submodules/TelegramUI/Components/Chat/ChatTextInputPanelNode/Sources/ChatTextInputPanelNode.swift	Paste (chatInputTextNodeShouldPaste) reattaches plain-text markdown markers → live emoji.

Non-obvious invariants

• One shared marker, one set of helpers. All emit sites (forward normalize, reverse copy/edit, selection copy) use customEmojiMarkdownURL + escapeCustomEmojiMarkdownAlt; the forward intercept and both reattach sites use parseCustomEmojiFileId. The marker is internal/transient — it exists only in the rich-conversion source string and on the clipboard, never persisted as a URL entity.
• CommonMark preserves the tg://emoji?id=N link URL verbatim under the NSLink attribute (spike-verified). markdownLink's as? NSURL branch returns url.absoluteString, which parseCustomEmojiFileId matches by strict prefix. Negative (signed Int64) file ids survive too (the reattach regex is (-?\d+)).
• Scope guard is structural. markdownSourceInjectingCustomEmojiMarkers works on a LOCAL copy — effectiveInputText is never mutated. A marker is an entity-expressible link, so an emoji-only message classifies not-rich (markdownMightNeedRichLayout finds no #/|/![/$/list tokens) and takes the entity path; the untouched customEmoji attribute becomes a .CustomEmoji entity.
• richMarkdownAttributeIfNeeded now takes attributedText: NSAttributedString (was text: String); it normalizes to the marker'd source internally, then calls the unchanged inputRichTextAttributeFromText(text:). All three call sites (send, edit-save, send-options preview) pass the attributed string.
• Edit-load AND paste reattach to live attributes; copy stays textual. setupEditMessage and chatInputTextNodeShouldPaste run chatInputTextWithReattachedCustomEmoji so the field shows the animated emoji, not raw token text. The paste branch is guarded by .contains("tg://emoji?id=") AND reattached.string != plainText, and runs only after the rich pasteboard types miss — private.telegramtext/RTF already decode the indexed tg://emoji?id=<id>&t=<n> RTF-link form via chatInputStateStringFromRTF. previewText() is unchanged (keeps the alt glyph).
• Empty alt → a space. CommonMark drops [](url) (no run carries the link attribute), which would silently lose the emoji; every emit site and the reattach substitute a space when the alt is empty.
• Rich send attaches inlineStickers (was [:]) + bubble-up packs, so the local store has the files. OPEN runtime risk: the wire send uses Api.InputRichMessage.documents: nil (apiInputRichMessage() in SyncCore_RichTextMessageAttribute.swift), so recipient rendering depends on the server back-filling documents from the embedded documentId — UNVERIFIED. If recipients see only the fallback glyph, populate documents: there.
• Accepted limitations: edit-load reattaches with file: nil (renders via lazy fileId resolution, but the premium-emoji gate is bypassed on edit); an alt containing a literal ] won't reattach on edit-load (cosmetic — re-save still parses it); parseCustomEmojiFileId (strict prefix) vs Pasteboard.swift's URLComponents parse could drift if the marker format ever changes.

Formulas trigger rich messages (strict math detection)

$…$/$$…$$ (and \(…\)/\[…\]) math triggers a rich message, gated by a strict boundary rule so casual $ stays plain. Inverse companion of the markdown-send gate above.

Non-obvious invariants

• Inline $…$/$$…$$ detection requires a 4-way boundary (in markdownReplacingInlineFormulas, BrowserMarkdown.swift): outer side of each delimiter = line edge OR non-alphanumeric; inner side = non-whitespace; opener/closer $-counts must match (1 or 2). This is what rejects $5-$10/$FOO=$BAR/cost$5$total (alphanumeric outer) while keeping $x$, ($x$), the answer is $x$.. The outer check is the addition over a plain "no-space-inside" rule.
• Block $$ detection (markdownBlockFormulaReplacement): single-line $$…$$ requires an exact $$ opener (not $$$) and trailing whitespace only; multi-line requires a bare $$ opener line. $$x$$ trailing text falls through to the inline rule. The \[…\] opener path is unchanged and exempt from these $$-only guards.
• Detection is shared with the document path; the gate is chat-only. markdownPreparedSource (detection) runs for both chat and document attachments. The triggers (richTextIsEntityExpressible/blockIsEntityExpressible → .formula is non-expressible; $/\(/\[ in markdownMightNeedRichLayout) are read only by the chat classifier richMarkdownAttributeIfNeeded.

InstantPageListItem task-list checkboxes (- [ ] / - [x])

InstantPageListItem carries a first-class checked: Bool? — the third associated value of .text(RichText, String?, Bool?) / .blocks([InstantPageBlock], String?, Bool?), orthogonal to the ordered-list num — representing a GitHub-style task-list checkbox. nil = not a checkbox item, false = unchecked, true = checked. Covers markdown parse, Postbox + FlatBuffers serialization, Telegram API transmission, display (V1 + V2), the edit round-trip, and previews.

Spec: docs/superpowers/specs/2026-05-27-instantpage-list-checkbox-design.md. Plan: docs/superpowers/plans/2026-05-27-instantpage-list-checkbox.md.

Where things live

File	Responsibility
submodules/TelegramCore/Sources/SyncCore/SyncCore_InstantPage.swift	The checked: Bool? enum payload; Postbox coding (key "ck", tri-state Int32); ==; FlatBuffers codec. Internal tri-state helpers checkedFromTriState/triState(fromChecked:).
submodules/TelegramCore/FlatSerialization/Models/InstantPageBlock.fbs	checkState:int32 (id: 2) on InstantPageListItem_Text + _Blocks. Source of truth; the Bazel flatc genrule regenerates the Swift (checked-in *_generated.swift is stale).
submodules/TelegramCore/Sources/ApiUtils/InstantPage.swift	checked / num accessors; reads & writes the API checkbox=flags.0 / checked=flags.1 bits via checkedFromApiFlags / apiFlags(fromChecked:) across all four list-item types.
submodules/BrowserUI/Sources/BrowserMarkdown.swift	Forward parse: markdownTaskListMarker detects [ ]/[x]/[X]; the result routes into checked (NOT num).
submodules/BrowserUI/Sources/InstantPageToMarkdown.swift	Reverse: emits - [ ] / - [x] from item.checked for the edit round-trip.
submodules/InstantPageUI/Sources/InstantPageV2Layout.swift	V2 detection via item.checked; .checklist(checked:colors:) marker carrying InstantPageV2CheckboxColors.
submodules/InstantPageUI/Sources/InstantPageRenderer.swift	V2 marker view (InstantPageV2ListMarkerView) hosts a real CheckNode.
submodules/InstantPageUI/Sources/InstantPageLayout.swift	V1 detection via item.checked (renders the existing InstantPageChecklistMarkerItem).
submodules/TelegramStringFormatting/Sources/InstantPagePreviewText.swift	previewText() renders a ☐/☑︎ glyph + body for checkbox items.

Non-obvious invariants

• checked is orthogonal to num. The API keeps checkbox/checked as flags separate from the list number, so an ordered item can be both numbered AND a checkbox. This is exactly why the first-class field replaced an earlier sentinel-string-in-num prototype (which could not represent both). No \u{001f}tg-md-task:* sentinel remains anywhere.
• API bits are checkbox=flags.0, checked=flags.1 on ALL FOUR list-item constructors (pageListItemText/Blocks and pageListOrderedItemText/Blocks, in and out — pageListItemText#2f58683c, pageListOrderedItemText#cd3ea036, etc.). The iOS Api.* layer exposes only flags: Int32; mask the bits (apiFlags(fromChecked:) / checkedFromApiFlags). Because state rides the flags (not the text), it survives the server round-trip for sender + recipients — including the sender's own send-confirmation echo (applyUpdateMessage replaces local attributes with the server's reconstruction, ApplyUpdateMessage.swift).
• Tri-state persistence 0=nil, 1=unchecked, 2=checked in BOTH Postbox (key "ck", decoded with decodeInt32ForKey(orElse: 0)) and FlatBuffers (checkState:int32, default 0). Absent/0 → nil, so pre-existing stored pages decode unchanged.
• Detection reads item.checked != nil in both layout engines (was instantPageTaskListMarkerState(item.num)); the V2 marker kind is .checklist(checked: item.checked == true, colors:). The empty-blocks .blocks → .text(.plain(" "), num, checked) promotion must carry checked through, not drop it.
• V2 CheckNode is hosted directly in a plain UIView, not an ASDisplayNode tree, so checkNode.displaysAsynchronously = false is set to avoid a first-draw blank flash. (The V2 pageView is now REUSED across streaming chunks via stable-id diffing — see the AI streaming section; CheckNode views survive across chunks as long as their list item is present.) InstantPageV2CheckboxColors (background←panelAccentColor, stroke←pageBackgroundColor, border←controlColor) is carried on the .checklist payload and mirrors the V1 instantPageChecklistMarkerTheme.
• Forward parser keeps [ ] detection but routes to checked. markdownApplyTaskListMarker/markdownStrippingTaskListMarker/markdownTaskListMarker still strip the marker from the item text; the state flows into checked while ordered items keep their real "\(ordinal)" number. The reverse converter emits lowercase [x] / [ ], which the forward hasPrefix guards re-parse — that is the round-trip contract.
• The enum-arity change is compile-enforced. Adding the third associated value broke every .text/.blocks construction/destructure; the full build is the completeness gate. Read-only consumers outside the core set exist (BrowserInstantPageContent.swift, CachedFaqInstantPage.swift) — grep \.(text|blocks)\( repo-wide when touching the enum again.

InstantPageBlock.blockQuote nested blocks

InstantPageBlock.blockQuote carries (blocks: [InstantPageBlock], caption: RichText) — a sequence of nested page blocks (paragraphs, headings, lists, code, even nested quotes), not the legacy text-only payload. .pullQuote is unchanged (still (text: RichText, caption: RichText); the TL API has no pullQuoteBlocks constructor).

Spec: docs/superpowers/specs/2026-05-29-instantpage-blockquote-blocks-design.md.

Where things live

File	Responsibility
submodules/TelegramCore/Sources/SyncCore/SyncCore_InstantPage.swift	Enum case shape; Postbox coding (legacy "t" lift → new "b" object array); equality (array-aware, mirrors .collage); FlatBuffers codec.
submodules/TelegramCore/FlatSerialization/Models/InstantPageBlock.fbs	InstantPageBlock_BlockQuote: text (now optional, legacy fallback) + caption (required) + new blocks:[InstantPageBlock] (id: 2). Source of truth; Bazel regenerates the *_generated.swift.
submodules/TelegramCore/Sources/ApiUtils/InstantPage.swift	Parse both pageBlockBlockquote (lift text→[.paragraph]) and pageBlockBlockquoteBlocks; encode legacy-when-possible.
submodules/InstantPageUI/Sources/InstantPageV2Layout.swift	layoutBlockQuote(blocks:…) recurses into children; legacy single-paragraph fast path delegates to layoutQuoteText (the renamed shared text core, also used by .pullQuote).
submodules/InstantPageUI/Sources/InstantPageLayout.swift	V1 .blockQuote arm recurses via layoutInstantPageBlock(...); same single-paragraph fast path.
submodules/BrowserUI/Sources/BrowserMarkdown.swift	Forward: one quote carrying all child blocks. Entity-expressibility gate (below).
submodules/BrowserUI/Sources/InstantPageToMarkdown.swift	Reverse: markdownBlockQuoteBlocks(_:) recurses per child and prefixes > per line.
submodules/TelegramStringFormatting/Sources/InstantPagePreviewText.swift	Concatenates child previewText()s + caption.

Non-obvious invariants

• Legacy shapes lift to [.paragraph(text)] at every decode boundary. API pageBlockBlockquote, the Postbox "t" key (old cached pages), and the FlatBuffers text field (now optional) each lift into a single-paragraph blocks array. New writes emit only blocks ("b" / the FB vector). So pre-existing stored pages and older senders decode unchanged.
• Outbound stays on the legacy wire constructor when the shape allows. apiInputBlock() emits pageBlockBlockquote for empty or single-.paragraph quotes (so older recipients understand the common chat case) and pageBlockBlockquoteBlocks only for genuinely nested quotes.
• Both renderers share one text core for the single-paragraph fast path. layoutQuoteText (V2; the function formerly named layoutBlockQuote, isPull: distinguishes pull vs block) and the V1 fast-path branch keep the legacy italicized-body styling; nested children render with their own normal category styling.
• Nested children use a FIXED 10pt inter-child gap, not spacingBetweenBlocks. The full page-flow spacing (~27pt around quotes) is too airy when nested, and 0 is too tight. childSpacing = 10.0 lives in both layout files; the first child hugs the container's verticalInset (no leading gap). Combined with a nested quote's own 4pt top inset this gives ~14pt effective separation.
• Entity-expressibility: a quote is entity-expressible (→ regular message path) only if its caption is empty AND every child is an entity-expressible .paragraph. A nested-structure or multi-paragraph quote is not, so it sends via the rich path. Behavior change: markdown > p1\n>\n> p2 is now ONE quote with two paragraphs (rich) rather than two consecutive entity quotes — correct semantics.
• The enum-arity change is compile-enforced across all modules; the full Bazel build is the completeness gate (no per-module build). CachedFaqInstantPage.swift matches case .blockQuote: payload-less and needs no edit. BrowserReadability.swift constructs .blockQuote(blocks: [.paragraph(.italic(...))], …) and is easy to miss in the spec's file list — grep \.blockQuote( repo-wide when touching the case again.

InstantPage thinking blocks (InstantPageBlock.thinking)

InstantPageBlock.thinking(RichText) renders server-sent reasoning as dimmed, continuously-shimmering text inside rich-data bubbles. V2 renderer only; V1 ignores the block (returns []). The shimmer and fade-in mechanics are deliberately separate from the char-reveal cursor so thinking blocks do not affect the reveal pacing of the answer content that follows them.

Where things live

File	Responsibility
submodules/InstantPageUI/Sources/InstantPageV2Layout.swift	InstantPageV2ThinkingItem layout item + layoutThinking(...) (paragraph color × 0.55 alpha for the dimmed style) + layoutBlock .thinking arm.
submodules/InstantPageUI/Sources/InstantPageRenderer.swift	InstantPageV2ThinkingView — a ShimmeringMaskView wrapping a private inner InstantPageV2TextView; InstantPageV2StableItemId.thinking(Int) stable-id namespace; makeItemView/reuse/stableId arms for the .thinking item kind; the two-counter (content + thinking) stable-id loop in InstantPageV2View.update.
submodules/InstantPageUI/Sources/InstantPageV2RevealCost.swift	.thinking(start:) cost entry: contributes zero cursor cost; triggers whole-block alpha fade-in when revealedCount >= start.
submodules/InstantPageUI/Sources/InstantPageLayout.swift	V1 has no explicit .thinking case — it falls through layoutInstantPageBlock's default: to an empty layout (no-op).

Non-obvious invariants

• Zero reveal cost is the linchpin. Thinking blocks do not advance the width-based cursor, so the answer's reveal position is identical whether or not thinking blocks are present — and is unaffected as they appear and disappear across streaming chunks. The answer text always reveals at the same rate regardless of how much thinking precedes it.
• Whole-block fade, not char reveal. The inner text is drawn fully under the shimmer mask at all times; the reveal mechanism is a simple alpha visibility keyed to the block's start index. A top-of-page thinking block (start == 0) is visible from the very first frame.
• Shimmer runs continuously while the view is displayed via ShimmeringMaskView's HierarchyTrackingLayer self-animation. It does not stop when streaming ends.
• Top-level only; separate stable-id namespace. Thinking blocks appear only at the top level of the page. They use the InstantPageV2StableItemId.thinking(Int) namespace, numbered by a counter independent of content blocks. This means adding or removing a thinking block never renumbers the stable ids of content blocks — which, combined with pageView reuse, ensures content views and reveal state persist as thinking blocks come and go across chunks.
• V1 is a no-op. InstantPageLayout.swift has no .thinking case; the block falls through layoutInstantPageBlock's default: to an empty layout, so V1 rendering silently skips it.