diff --git a/src/agents/pi-embedded-utils.ts b/src/agents/pi-embedded-utils.ts
index 801e5c9faa..82ad3efc03 100644
--- a/src/agents/pi-embedded-utils.ts
+++ b/src/agents/pi-embedded-utils.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import type { AgentMessage } from "@mariozechner/pi-agent-core";
 import type { AssistantMessage } from "@mariozechner/pi-ai";
+import { extractTextFromChatContent } from "../shared/chat-content.js";
 import { stripReasoningTagsFromText } from "../shared/text/reasoning-tags.js";
 import { sanitizeUserFacingText } from "./pi-embedded-helpers.js";
 import { formatToolDetail, resolveToolDisplay } from "./tool-display.js";
@@ -207,25 +208,15 @@ export function stripThinkingTagsFromText(text: string): string {
 }
 
 export function extractAssistantText(msg: AssistantMessage): string {
-  const isTextBlock = (block: unknown): block is { type: "text"; text: string } => {
-    if (!block || typeof block !== "object") {
-      return false;
-    }
-    const rec = block as Record<string, unknown>;
-    return rec.type === "text" && typeof rec.text === "string";
-  };
-
-  const blocks = Array.isArray(msg.content)
-    ? msg.content
-        .filter(isTextBlock)
-        .map((c) =>
-          stripThinkingTagsFromText(
-            stripDowngradedToolCallText(stripMinimaxToolCallXml(c.text)),
-          ).trim(),
-        )
-        .filter(Boolean)
-    : [];
-  const extracted = blocks.join("\n").trim();
+  const extracted =
+    extractTextFromChatContent(msg.content, {
+      sanitizeText: (text) =>
+        stripThinkingTagsFromText(
+          stripDowngradedToolCallText(stripMinimaxToolCallXml(text)),
+        ).trim(),
+      joinWith: "\n",
+      normalizeText: (text) => text.trim(),
+    }) ?? "";
   // Only apply keyword-based error rewrites when the assistant message is actually an error.
   // Otherwise normal prose that *mentions* errors (e.g. "context overflow") can get clobbered.
   const errorContext = msg.stopReason === "error" || Boolean(msg.errorMessage?.trim());
diff --git a/src/agents/tools/sessions-helpers.ts b/src/agents/tools/sessions-helpers.ts
index 09c21e6999..f1a6b427e4 100644
--- a/src/agents/tools/sessions-helpers.ts
+++ b/src/agents/tools/sessions-helpers.ts
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ export {
   resolveSessionReference,
   shouldResolveSessionIdInput,
 } from "./sessions-resolution.js";
+import { extractTextFromChatContent } from "../../shared/chat-content.js";
 import { sanitizeUserFacingText } from "../pi-embedded-helpers.js";
 import {
   stripDowngradedToolCallText,
@@ -152,23 +153,12 @@ export function extractAssistantText(message: unknown): string | undefined {
   if (!Array.isArray(content)) {
     return undefined;
   }
-  const chunks: string[] = [];
-  for (const block of content) {
-    if (!block || typeof block !== "object") {
-      continue;
-    }
-    if ((block as { type?: unknown }).type !== "text") {
-      continue;
-    }
-    const text = (block as { text?: unknown }).text;
-    if (typeof text === "string") {
-      const sanitized = sanitizeTextContent(text);
-      if (sanitized.trim()) {
-        chunks.push(sanitized);
-      }
-    }
-  }
-  const joined = chunks.join("").trim();
+  const joined =
+    extractTextFromChatContent(content, {
+      sanitizeText: sanitizeTextContent,
+      joinWith: "",
+      normalizeText: (text) => text.trim(),
+    }) ?? "";
   const stopReason = (message as { stopReason?: unknown }).stopReason;
   const errorMessage = (message as { errorMessage?: unknown }).errorMessage;
   const errorContext =
diff --git a/src/shared/chat-content.ts b/src/shared/chat-content.ts
index 5f8541d9c6..c052e457eb 100644
--- a/src/shared/chat-content.ts
+++ b/src/shared/chat-content.ts
@@ -1,8 +1,13 @@
 export function extractTextFromChatContent(
   content: unknown,
-  opts?: { sanitizeText?: (text: string) => string },
+  opts?: {
+    sanitizeText?: (text: string) => string;
+    joinWith?: string;
+    normalizeText?: (text: string) => string;
+  },
 ): string | null {
-  const normalize = (text: string) => text.replace(/\s+/g, " ").trim();
+  const normalize = opts?.normalizeText ?? ((text: string) => text.replace(/\s+/g, " ").trim());
+  const joinWith = opts?.joinWith ?? " ";
 
   if (typeof content === "string") {
     const value = opts?.sanitizeText ? opts.sanitizeText(content) : content;
@@ -32,6 +37,6 @@ export function extractTextFromChatContent(
     }
   }
 
-  const joined = normalize(chunks.join(" "));
+  const joined = normalize(chunks.join(joinWith));
   return joined ? joined : null;
 }
diff --git a/src/shared/shared-misc.test.ts b/src/shared/shared-misc.test.ts
index 298b3ff0a5..9ac04ca623 100644
--- a/src/shared/shared-misc.test.ts
+++ b/src/shared/shared-misc.test.ts
@@ -30,6 +30,22 @@ describe("extractTextFromChatContent", () => {
       }),
     ).toBe("Here ok");
   });
+
+  it("supports custom join and normalization", () => {
+    expect(
+      extractTextFromChatContent(
+        [
+          { type: "text", text: " hello " },
+          { type: "text", text: "world " },
+        ],
+        {
+          sanitizeText: (text) => text.trim(),
+          joinWith: "\n",
+          normalizeText: (text) => text.trim(),
+        },
+      ),
+    ).toBe("hello\nworld");
+  });
 });
 
 describe("shared/frontmatter", () => {