Upgrade code

app/services/notification_service.py

@@ -219,9 +219,10 @@ def notify_comment_added(comment):
     # receive the new comment immediately without needing to reload.
     payload = {
         'id'         : comment.id,
-        'author_name': comment.author.full_name,
-        'author_init': comment.author.full_name[0].upper(),
-        'is_it_staff': comment.author.is_it_staff,
+        'author_name'  : comment.author.full_name,
+        'author_init'  : comment.author.full_name[0].upper(),
+        'author_avatar': comment.author.avatar_url or '',
+        'is_it_staff'  : comment.author.is_it_staff,
         'is_internal': comment.is_internal,
         'body'       : comment.body,
         'created_at' : comment.created_at.strftime('%b %d, %Y %H:%M'),

app/services/validation_service.py

@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ copy-pasting validation code into auth.py, admin.py, and future modules.
 """
 
 import logging
+import mistune
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
@@ -177,3 +178,51 @@ def _group_by_alternative(
             else:
                 groups.append([(offset, magic)])
     return groups if groups else [[]]
+
+
+# ─── Comment Body Markdown Rendering ─────────────────────────────────────────
+# Comments support a safe subset of Markdown (bold, italic, code, lists,
+# blockquotes, links).  We render to HTML at write time and sanitize with a
+# strict allowlist so stored bodies are always safe to render with | safe.
+#
+# Intentionally excluded from comments (present in KB allowlist):
+#   img, table, div, h1-h6, figure — keep comment rendering lightweight.
+
+import bleach as _bleach
+
+_COMMENT_ALLOWED_TAGS = {
+    'p', 'br',
+    'strong', 'em', 'u', 's', 'code', 'pre',
+    'ul', 'ol', 'li',
+    'blockquote',
+    'a',
+    'hr',
+}
+_COMMENT_ALLOWED_ATTRS = {
+    'a': ['href', 'title', 'rel'],
+}
+
+_md = mistune.create_markdown(escape=True)
+
+
+def render_comment_body(raw_text: str) -> str:
+    """Convert plain-text Markdown comment to sanitized HTML.
+
+    Renders Markdown to HTML with mistune, then strips any tags/attributes
+    not in the comment allowlist via bleach.  The result is safe to render
+    with Jinja2's ``| safe`` filter without further escaping.
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    raw_text : str  – the raw plain-text comment body submitted by the user
+    """
+    if not raw_text:
+        return ''
+    html    = _md(raw_text)
+    cleaned = _bleach.clean(
+        html,
+        tags       = _COMMENT_ALLOWED_TAGS,
+        attributes = _COMMENT_ALLOWED_ATTRS,
+        strip      = True,
+    )
+    return cleaned