Harden pasted Scattermind JSON handoff

server.js

@@ -486,11 +486,45 @@ function looksLikeRankPayload(value = {}) {
   );
 }
 
+function extractFirstJsonObject(text = '') {
+  const start = text.indexOf('{');
+  if (start < 0) return '';
+  let depth = 0;
+  let inString = false;
+  let escaped = false;
+  for (let index = start; index < text.length; index += 1) {
+    const char = text[index];
+    if (escaped) {
+      escaped = false;
+      continue;
+    }
+    if (char === '\\' && inString) {
+      escaped = true;
+      continue;
+    }
+    if (char === '"') {
+      inString = !inString;
+      continue;
+    }
+    if (inString) continue;
+    if (char === '{') depth += 1;
+    if (char === '}') {
+      depth -= 1;
+      if (depth === 0) return text.slice(start, index + 1);
+    }
+  }
+  return '';
+}
+
 function parseEmbeddedRankPayload(value = '') {
-  const text = cleanMultiline(value, 12000);
-  if (!text.startsWith('{') || !text.endsWith('}')) return null;
+  const text = cleanMultiline(value, 12000)
+    .replace(/^```(?:json)?\s*/i, '')
+    .replace(/```$/i, '')
+    .trim();
+  const jsonText = text.startsWith('{') && text.endsWith('}') ? text : extractFirstJsonObject(text);
+  if (!jsonText) return null;
   try {
-    const parsed = JSON.parse(text);
+    const parsed = JSON.parse(jsonText);
     return looksLikeRankPayload(parsed) ? parsed : null;
   } catch {
     return null;