Version

gog 0.17.0 (Homebrew 2026-05-15T18:03:28Z)

Symptom

gog docs write <docId> --tab=<tab> --file=<md> --markdown --append does not produce the expected paragraph styles for two common markdown constructs:

1. Bullet lists → literal • paragraphs

Source markdown:

- **Item A** — description.
- **Item B** — description.
- **Item C** — description.

After append, the resulting paragraphs are NORMAL_TEXT (not bulleted) with the bullet glyph inlined as text:

[NORMAL|Arial] • Item A — description.
[NORMAL|Arial] • Item B — description.
[NORMAL|Arial] • Item C — description.

Expected: BULLET paragraph style (native Google Docs list), no literal • glyph.

For comparison, the same markdown pushed via gog docs create --file --markdown (no --append) does produce native BULLET paragraphs.

2. Fenced code blocks → per-line Courier New paragraphs

Source markdown:

```
line 1
line 2
line 3
```

After append, each line becomes its own NORMAL_TEXT paragraph with Courier New font. There is no continuous code block, no paragraph background, no Format → Preformatted paragraph style applied. Visually this reads as "N separate one-line code styled paragraphs" rather than one block.

Expected: a single contiguous code-styled block (whatever style is currently produced by docs create --file --markdown for fenced code; that path renders correctly).

Repro

cat > /tmp/repro.md <<'MD'
# Heading

Intro paragraph.

- **First** — bullet one.
- **Second** — bullet two.

Pipeline:

\`\`\`
stage 1
stage 2
stage 3
\`\`\`

End paragraph.
MD

# Set up a doc + tab to write into:
docId=$(gog docs create "Test gog append" --json | jq -r .documentId)
gog docs add-tab $docId --title=Test --index=1

# This is the failing path:
gog docs write $docId --tab=Test --file=/tmp/repro.md --markdown --append

# Inspect via --raw to confirm paragraph styles
gog docs read $docId --tab=Test --raw | jq '...'

Expected vs actual

Workaround

Manual paste — pandoc -t html <md> \| <html-to-clipboard-helper> then Cmd+V into the target tab. Produces correct native bullets and a contiguous code block. The API path is unusable for any markdown containing bullet lists or fenced code blocks until this is fixed.

Context

Related to #592 (table insertion in the same --append --markdown path). Both bugs point at the converter used specifically in docs write --markdown --append — docs create --file --markdown does not exhibit either failure mode, so the converter is duplicated or different across the two paths.

For agent-driven doc-update workflows (write into existing multi-tab specs), the --append --markdown path is the natural choice; until it produces parity with docs create, every non-trivial doc update has to be done by hand.