Add Markdown to Slack mrkdwn conversion and fix polling duplicates

- Add md_to_mrkdwn() to convert Markdown output to Slack mrkdwn format
  (headers, bold, links, horizontal rules)
- Apply conversion in both slack_handler and api before posting to Slack
- CronJob now moves tasks to In Progress (status 4) before notifying
  Bender, preventing duplicate polling of the same task

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: barckcode

helm/templates/cronjob.yaml

@@ -29,6 +29,46 @@ data:
     log()   { echo "[$(date +'%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')] $*"; }
     error() { echo "[$(date +'%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')] ERROR: $*" >&2; }
 
+    move_to_in_progress() {
+      task_json="$1"
+      task_id=$(echo "$task_json" | jq -r '.id')
+      headline=$(echo "$task_json" | jq -r '.headline // empty')
+      description=$(echo "$task_json" | jq -r '.description // empty')
+      tags=$(echo "$task_json" | jq -r '.tags // empty')
+      sprint=$(echo "$task_json" | jq -r '.sprint // empty')
+      priority=$(echo "$task_json" | jq -r '.priority // "3"')
+      milestoneid=$(echo "$task_json" | jq -r '.milestoneid // empty')
+
+      update_response=$(curl -s "${LEANTIME_URL}/api/jsonrpc" \
+        -H "x-api-key: ${LEANTIME_API_KEY}" \
+        -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
+        -d "{
+          \"jsonrpc\": \"2.0\",
+          \"method\": \"leantime.rpc.tickets.updateTicket\",
+          \"params\": {
+            \"values\": {
+              \"id\": ${task_id},
+              \"projectId\": ${PROJECT_ID},
+              \"headline\": \"${headline}\",
+              \"status\": \"4\",
+              \"priority\": \"${priority}\",
+              \"sprint\": ${sprint},
+              \"editorId\": ${EDITOR_ID},
+              \"tags\": \"${tags}\",
+              \"milestoneid\": ${milestoneid}
+            }
+          },
+          \"id\": 1
+        }" 2>&1)
+
+      if printf '%s' "$update_response" | tr -d '\000-\011\013-\037' | jq -e '.result' > /dev/null 2>&1; then
+        log "Task $task_id moved to In Progress (status 4)"
+      else
+        error "Failed to move task $task_id to In Progress"
+        return 1
+      fi
+    }
+
     notify_bender() {
       task_id=$(echo "$1" | jq -r '.id')
 
@@ -133,7 +173,9 @@ data:
           task_id=$(echo "$task" | jq -r '.id')
           log "Processing task $task_id..."
           if validate_task "$task"; then
-            notify_bender "$task"
+            if move_to_in_progress "$task"; then
+              notify_bender "$task"
+            fi
           fi
           task_count=$((task_count + 1))
         fi

src/bender/api.py

@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 from bender.claude_code import ClaudeCodeError, invoke_claude
 from bender.config import Settings
 from bender.session_manager import SessionManager
-from bender.slack_utils import SLACK_MSG_LIMIT, split_text
+from bender.slack_utils import SLACK_MSG_LIMIT, md_to_mrkdwn, split_text
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
@@ -105,7 +105,8 @@ async def invoke(request: InvokeRequest) -> InvokeResponse:
             ) from exc
 
         # Post the response in the thread, splitting long messages
-        chunks = split_text(response.result, SLACK_MSG_LIMIT)
+        formatted = md_to_mrkdwn(response.result)
+        chunks = split_text(formatted, SLACK_MSG_LIMIT)
         for chunk in chunks:
             await slack_client.chat_postMessage(
                 channel=request.channel,

src/bender/slack_handler.py

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 from bender.claude_code import ClaudeCodeError, invoke_claude
 from bender.config import Settings
 from bender.session_manager import SessionManager
-from bender.slack_utils import SLACK_MSG_LIMIT, split_text
+from bender.slack_utils import SLACK_MSG_LIMIT, md_to_mrkdwn, split_text
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
@@ -86,6 +86,8 @@ def _strip_mention(text: str) -> str:
 
 async def _post_response(say, text: str, thread_ts: str) -> None:
     """Post a response in the thread, splitting if it exceeds Slack's limit."""
+    text = md_to_mrkdwn(text)
+
     if len(text) <= SLACK_MSG_LIMIT:
         await say(text=text, thread_ts=thread_ts)
         return

src/bender/slack_utils.py

@@ -1,9 +1,36 @@
 """Shared Slack utilities — message splitting and formatting."""
 
+import re
+
 # Slack message character limit
 SLACK_MSG_LIMIT = 4000
 
 
+def md_to_mrkdwn(text: str) -> str:
+    """Convert standard Markdown to Slack mrkdwn format."""
+    lines = text.split("\n")
+    result: list[str] = []
+
+    for line in lines:
+        # Headers → bold (Slack has no heading syntax)
+        line = re.sub(r"^#{1,6}\s+(.+)$", r"*\1*", line)
+
+        # Horizontal rules → empty line
+        if re.match(r"^---+\s*$", line):
+            result.append("")
+            continue
+
+        # Bold: **text** → *text*
+        line = re.sub(r"\*\*(.+?)\*\*", r"*\1*", line)
+
+        # Markdown links: [text](url) → <url|text>
+        line = re.sub(r"\[([^\]]+)\]\(([^)]+)\)", r"<\2|\1>", line)
+
+        result.append(line)
+
+    return "\n".join(result)
+
+
 def split_text(text: str, max_length: int = SLACK_MSG_LIMIT) -> list[str]:
     """Split text into chunks, preferring to break at newlines."""
     chunks: list[str] = []

tests/test_slack_utils.py

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 """Tests for the Slack utilities module."""
 
-from bender.slack_utils import SLACK_MSG_LIMIT, split_text
+from bender.slack_utils import SLACK_MSG_LIMIT, md_to_mrkdwn, split_text
 
 
 class TestSlackMsgLimit:
@@ -63,3 +63,40 @@ def test_newline_stripped_between_chunks(self) -> None:
         result = split_text(text, 6)
         assert result[0] == "abcde"
         assert result[1] == "fghij"
+
+
+class TestMdToMrkdwn:
+    """Tests for the md_to_mrkdwn function."""
+
+    def test_headers_to_bold(self) -> None:
+        """Markdown headers become bold text."""
+        assert md_to_mrkdwn("## Hello") == "*Hello*"
+        assert md_to_mrkdwn("### World") == "*World*"
+        assert md_to_mrkdwn("# Title") == "*Title*"
+
+    def test_bold_double_asterisk(self) -> None:
+        """Double asterisks become single asterisks."""
+        assert md_to_mrkdwn("this is **bold** text") == "this is *bold* text"
+
+    def test_links(self) -> None:
+        """Markdown links become Slack links."""
+        assert md_to_mrkdwn("[click](https://example.com)") == "<https://example.com|click>"
+
+    def test_horizontal_rule(self) -> None:
+        """Horizontal rules become empty lines."""
+        assert md_to_mrkdwn("above\n---\nbelow") == "above\n\nbelow"
+
+    def test_plain_text_unchanged(self) -> None:
+        """Plain text passes through unchanged."""
+        assert md_to_mrkdwn("just plain text") == "just plain text"
+
+    def test_code_blocks_preserved(self) -> None:
+        """Code blocks are not modified."""
+        text = "```\nkubectl get pods\n```"
+        assert md_to_mrkdwn(text) == text
+
+    def test_combined(self) -> None:
+        """Multiple conversions in one message."""
+        md = "## Task\n**Client:** helmcode\n[Link](https://example.com)"
+        expected = "*Task*\n*Client:* helmcode\n<https://example.com|Link>"
+        assert md_to_mrkdwn(md) == expected