---
name: Paste-safe command formatting for Howard
description: Format all shell/PowerShell commands for safe copy-paste — multi-line scripts (never semicolon one-liners) AND all code starts at column 0 inside fences (no indentation). Both rules exist because Howard copy-pastes directly from chat and any visual artifact (wrapping or leading whitespace) becomes a real parse error.
metadata:
  type: feedback
---

Two clauses, same root cause. Howard copy-pastes commands directly from the Claude chat window into PowerShell (often via ScreenConnect). Any visual artifact in the rendered output becomes a real character in the paste and breaks the parse.

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## 1. Multi-line, never one-liners

Write commands longer than ~60 characters as multi-line scripts in a fenced code block — one statement per line, newlines instead of semicolons.

**Why:** long semicolon-chained one-liners wrap visually in the chat window. On paste, the visual wraps become real newlines, breaking operators (`&`, etc.) onto their own lines → `AmpersandNotAllowed` and similar parse errors.

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## 2. No leading whitespace inside code fences

All code starts at **column 0** inside the fences. No leading spaces or tabs, even when the surrounding markdown is indented (e.g. inside a list item).

**Why:** indented code blocks consistently fail when pasted into PowerShell — Howard had to manually strip the indentation every time.

**Apply:** every PowerShell, bash, or other code block — column 0 for the first non-fence character on every line.