Type > on selected text in the composer to turn it into a block quote

[kaovilai]

Problem

When I want to quote something in the composer, for example a line I pasted from an agent's reply or a log, I have to move to the start of the text, type > , and repeat that for every line. If I have already typed or pasted the text, there is no quick way to turn it into a block quote.

The composer already supports typing > at the start of an empty line to start a block quote. It also already wraps a selection when I type a bracket or quote character, so selecting text and typing (, [, ", ` or * surrounds it. A selection plus > does nothing useful today: it replaces the selected text with a >.

Request

With text selected in the composer, typing > turns the selection into a block quote instead of replacing it with a >.

• A selection inside one paragraph becomes a block quote with that text in it.
• A selection spanning several paragraphs quotes each of them together in one block quote.
• A selection that already sits inside a block quote could lift it back out, so the key toggles, but that part is optional.

selected:  The build failed on the lint step
type `>`:  > The build failed on the lint step

This works the same way as the existing surround-on-type behavior for brackets and quotes, so it should be easy to learn.

Open questions

1. Should the selection need to cover a whole line or paragraph, or should any non-empty selection inside a paragraph quote that paragraph? Quoting only part of a paragraph would mean splitting it.
2. Should it toggle off when the selection is already quoted?
3. Selections that include chips (mentions, skills, attachments): skip the quoting, as surround-on-type already does for chips?
4. Is this only for the desktop and web composer, or should mobile get it too? Mobile has no hardware > key flow like this, so I would leave it out unless someone wants it there.

Related

• [Bug]: Comments outside blockquotes in the composer become quoted after sending #19409 (closed): quote boundaries in the composer and sent message, which came up while typing >
• fix(web): wrapping a selection in backticks formats it as code #14870: wrapping a selection in backticks formats it as code

Note

Written with Claude Code (model: claude-sonnet-5-5) on behalf of the user.