diff --git a/changelog.d/fixes/12359-preserve-zwnj-zwj.md b/changelog.d/fixes/12359-preserve-zwnj-zwj.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..31d61a0c9d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/fixes/12359-preserve-zwnj-zwj.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+- **fix(sse):** Keep ZWNJ (U+200C) and ZWJ (U+200D) in assistant text, reasoning and tool-call arguments — Persian/Kurdish half-space (`ارائه‌دهنده`), Arabic/Indic shaping and emoji sequences no longer lose them; the response de-obfuscation now removes joiners only between ASCII word characters, where the request side inserts them ([#12186](https://github.com/diegosouzapw/OmniRoute/issues/12186)) — thanks @rezjalibd
diff --git a/open-sse/executors/antigravity/sseCollect.ts b/open-sse/executors/antigravity/sseCollect.ts
index d84b1fb077..630b091aab 100644
--- a/open-sse/executors/antigravity/sseCollect.ts
+++ b/open-sse/executors/antigravity/sseCollect.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 // Pure SSE-payload -> collected-stream parsing for the Antigravity executor.
 // Extracted verbatim from antigravity.ts (no host state, no fetch/auth).
 import { normalizeOpenAICompatibleFinishReasonString } from "../../utils/finishReason.ts";
+import { stripObfuscationZeroWidth } from "../../utils/zeroWidth.ts";
 
 export type AntigravityCollectedStream = {
   textContent: string;
@@ -17,7 +18,7 @@ export type AntigravityCollectedStream = {
 
 export function stripZeroWidth(value: unknown): unknown {
   if (typeof value === "string") {
-    return value.replace(/[\u200B-\u200D\uFEFF]/g, "");
+    return stripObfuscationZeroWidth(value);
   }
   if (Array.isArray(value)) {
     return value.map((item) => stripZeroWidth(item));
@@ -37,7 +38,7 @@ export function parseAntigravityTextualToolCall(
   text: unknown
 ): { name: string; args: unknown } | null {
   if (typeof text !== "string") return null;
-  const normalized = text.replace(/[\u200B-\u200D\uFEFF]/g, "");
+  const normalized = stripObfuscationZeroWidth(text);
   const match = normalized.match(
     /^[\s\S]*?\[Tool call:\s*([^\]\n]+)\]\s*\nArguments:\s*([\s\S]+?)\s*$/
   );
diff --git a/open-sse/handlers/responseSanitizer.ts b/open-sse/handlers/responseSanitizer.ts
index a2210681d7..ce2d2af227 100644
--- a/open-sse/handlers/responseSanitizer.ts
+++ b/open-sse/handlers/responseSanitizer.ts
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import {
   applyCacheHitTokensToUsage,
   applyCacheHitTokensToResponsesUsage,
 } from "./responseSanitizer/cacheHitTokens.ts";
+import { stripObfuscationZeroWidth } from "../utils/zeroWidth.ts";
 export {
   extractThinkingFromContent,
   shouldParseTextualReasoningTags,
@@ -85,7 +86,7 @@ function deleteOpenAICompatibleReasoningFields(record: JsonRecord): void {
 }
 
 function stripZeroWidthText(value: string): string {
-  return value.replace(/[\u200B-\u200D\uFEFF]/g, "");
+  return stripObfuscationZeroWidth(value);
 }
 
 function stripZeroWidthToolArgumentJson(value: unknown): string {
diff --git a/open-sse/handlers/responseTranslator.ts b/open-sse/handlers/responseTranslator.ts
index 0038f7625b..05195b8011 100644
--- a/open-sse/handlers/responseTranslator.ts
+++ b/open-sse/handlers/responseTranslator.ts
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import {
 } from "../services/geminiThoughtSignatureStore.ts";
 import { normalizeOpenAICompatibleFinishReasonString } from "../utils/finishReason.ts";
 import { containsTextualToolCallMarker } from "../utils/textualToolCall.ts";
+import { stripObfuscationZeroWidth } from "../utils/zeroWidth.ts";
 import { getAnyReasoningValue } from "../utils/reasoningFields.ts";
 import {
   caseInsensitiveToolNameLookup,
@@ -63,7 +64,7 @@ function parseTextualToolCall(text: unknown): { name: string; args: unknown } |
   // variations, e.g. a leading "(empty)" marker or zero-width chars inserted
   // into argument strings. Normalize those variants before parsing so the
   // response is still surfaced as a structured OpenAI tool call.
-  const normalized = text.replace(/[\u200B-\u200D\uFEFF]/g, "");
+  const normalized = stripObfuscationZeroWidth(text);
   const match = normalized.match(
     /^[\s\S]*?\[Tool call:\s*([^\]\n]+)\]\s*\nArguments:\s*([\s\S]+?)\s*$/
   );
diff --git a/open-sse/handlers/sseParser/geminiResponse.ts b/open-sse/handlers/sseParser/geminiResponse.ts
index 1657cf2030..df18008c04 100644
--- a/open-sse/handlers/sseParser/geminiResponse.ts
+++ b/open-sse/handlers/sseParser/geminiResponse.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 // Extracted verbatim from sseParser.ts (file-size cap): pure parsing, no host
 // state, following the handlers submodule pattern (chatCore/, responseSanitizer/).
 import { normalizeOpenAICompatibleFinishReasonString } from "../../utils/finishReason.ts";
+import { stripObfuscationZeroWidth } from "../../utils/zeroWidth.ts";
 
 type AccumulatedToolCall = {
   id: string;
@@ -20,7 +21,7 @@ type GeminiSSEAccumulator = {
 };
 
 function stripZeroWidth(value: unknown): unknown {
-  if (typeof value === "string") return value.replace(/[\u200B-\u200D\uFEFF]/g, "");
+  if (typeof value === "string") return stripObfuscationZeroWidth(value);
   return value;
 }
 
@@ -29,7 +30,7 @@ function stripZeroWidth(value: unknown): unknown {
  * Gemini/Antigravity models emit instead of a native functionCall part.
  */
 function tryParseTextualToolCall(text: string): { name: string; args: unknown } | null {
-  const normalized = text.replace(/[\u200B-\u200D\uFEFF]/g, "");
+  const normalized = stripObfuscationZeroWidth(text);
   const match = normalized.match(
     /^[\s\S]*?\[Tool call:\s*([^\]\n]+)\]\s*\nArguments:\s*([\s\S]+?)\s*$/
   );
diff --git a/open-sse/translator/response/gemini-to-openai.ts b/open-sse/translator/response/gemini-to-openai.ts
index 2a8240e290..98808808e1 100644
--- a/open-sse/translator/response/gemini-to-openai.ts
+++ b/open-sse/translator/response/gemini-to-openai.ts
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ import {
   isMalformedToolCallFinishReason,
 } from "../../utils/finishReason.ts";
 import { stripAnsiCodes } from "../../utils/streamHelpers.ts";
+import { stripObfuscationZeroWidth } from "../../utils/zeroWidth.ts";
 
 type GeminiToOpenAIState = {
   functionIndex: number;
@@ -483,7 +484,7 @@ export function geminiToOpenAIResponse(chunk, state) {
         let candidate = parseTextualToolCallCandidate(accumulated);
 
         if (candidate) {
-          accumulated = accumulated.replace(/[\u200B-\u200D\uFEFF]/g, "");
+          accumulated = stripObfuscationZeroWidth(accumulated);
           let toolCallIndex = accumulated.lastIndexOf("(empty)[Tool call:");
           if (toolCallIndex < 0) {
             toolCallIndex = accumulated.lastIndexOf("[Tool call:");
diff --git a/open-sse/utils/stream.ts b/open-sse/utils/stream.ts
index 16572b18b3..dd37eda217 100644
--- a/open-sse/utils/stream.ts
+++ b/open-sse/utils/stream.ts
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ import {
 } from "./responsesCommentaryDrop.ts";
 import { buildErrorBody } from "./error.ts";
 import { parseTextualToolCallCandidate, isValidToolCallHeaderPrefix } from "./textualToolCall.ts";
+import { stripObfuscationZeroWidth } from "./zeroWidth.ts";
 import {
   formatTranslatedStreamError,
   normalizeStreamFailurePayload,
@@ -272,7 +273,7 @@ function containsMalformedTextualToolCall(
   allowedToolNames?: Set<string> | null
 ): boolean {
   if (typeof text !== "string") return false;
-  const normalized = text.replace(/[\u200B-\u200D\uFEFF]/g, "");
+  const normalized = stripObfuscationZeroWidth(text);
 
   let searchIdx = 0;
   while (true) {
@@ -1637,10 +1638,7 @@ export function createSSEStream(options: StreamOptions = {}) {
                         isResponsesCommentaryMessageItem
                       ).items
                     : passthroughResponsesOutputItems;
-                  const backfilled = backfillResponsesCompletedOutput(
-                    parsed,
-                    backfillCandidates
-                  );
+                  const backfilled = backfillResponsesCompletedOutput(parsed, backfillCandidates);
                   const usageNormalized = normalizeUsage(parsed);
                   if (
                     stripped ||
@@ -1760,7 +1758,11 @@ export function createSSEStream(options: StreamOptions = {}) {
                       ) {
                         const pt = emptyChoicesUsage.prompt_tokens ?? 0;
                         if (pt === 0) {
-                          const estimated = estimateUsage(body, totalContentLength, sourceFormat || FORMATS.OPENAI);
+                          const estimated = estimateUsage(
+                            body,
+                            totalContentLength,
+                            sourceFormat || FORMATS.OPENAI
+                          );
                           if (estimated?.prompt_tokens > 0) {
                             emptyChoicesUsage.prompt_tokens = estimated.prompt_tokens;
                             emptyChoicesUsage.total_tokens =
@@ -2519,11 +2521,7 @@ export function createSSEStream(options: StreamOptions = {}) {
               // [DONE], so metered clients still see token counts. When the
               // upstream DID send usage (trailing or in-band), it was forwarded
               // already and passthroughForwardedUsage guards this off.
-              if (
-                shouldEmitDoneTerminator &&
-                !passthroughForwardedUsage &&
-                hasValidUsage(usage)
-              ) {
+              if (shouldEmitDoneTerminator && !passthroughForwardedUsage && hasValidUsage(usage)) {
                 const usageOnlyChunk = {
                   id: passthroughLastChatId ?? passthroughResponsesId ?? `chatcmpl-${Date.now()}`,
                   object: "chat.completion.chunk",
diff --git a/open-sse/utils/textualToolCall.ts b/open-sse/utils/textualToolCall.ts
index 67c7fde1a2..36b5668fe3 100644
--- a/open-sse/utils/textualToolCall.ts
+++ b/open-sse/utils/textualToolCall.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
+import { stripObfuscationZeroWidth } from "./zeroWidth.ts";
+
 export function stripZeroWidth(value: unknown): unknown {
   if (typeof value === "string") {
-    return value.replace(/[\u200B-\u200D\uFEFF]/g, "");
+    return stripObfuscationZeroWidth(value);
   }
   if (Array.isArray(value)) {
     return value.map((item) => stripZeroWidth(item));
@@ -58,7 +60,7 @@ export function parseTextualToolCallCandidate(
   text: unknown
 ): { kind: "complete"; name: string; args: unknown } | { kind: "partial" } | null {
   if (typeof text !== "string") return null;
-  const normalized = text.replace(/[\u200B-\u200D\uFEFF]/g, "");
+  const normalized = stripObfuscationZeroWidth(text);
   const toolCallIndex = normalized.lastIndexOf("[Tool call:");
   if (toolCallIndex < 0) {
     const lastParen = normalized.lastIndexOf("(");
@@ -102,7 +104,7 @@ export function parseTextualToolCallCandidate(
 
 export function containsTextualToolCallMarker(text: unknown): boolean {
   if (typeof text !== "string") return false;
-  const normalized = text.replace(/[\u200B-\u200D\uFEFF]/g, "");
+  const normalized = stripObfuscationZeroWidth(text);
 
   if (!normalized.includes("[Tool call:")) return false;
   if (normalized.includes("Arguments:")) return true;
diff --git a/open-sse/utils/zeroWidth.ts b/open-sse/utils/zeroWidth.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ecce702bc3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/open-sse/utils/zeroWidth.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+/**
+ * Zero-width character cleanup for model output.
+ *
+ * The request side obfuscates configurable agent words by inserting a
+ * U+200D ZERO WIDTH JOINER after their first letter (`o\u200Dpencode`, see
+ * `services/claudeCodeObfuscation.ts` and `services/systemTransforms.ts`), and
+ * the response side removes zero-width code points again so an echoed word is
+ * not corrupted. Removing every U+200B..U+200D also deletes U+200C ZERO WIDTH
+ * NON-JOINER and U+200D where they belong to the text itself: the Persian and
+ * Kurdish half-space (ارائه\u200Cدهنده, می\u200Cروم, کتاب\u200Cها), Arabic and Indic shaping,
+ * and emoji ZWJ sequences (👨\u200D👩\u200D👧). See #12186.
+ *
+ * The obfuscator only ever places a joiner between two ASCII word characters,
+ * so a joiner is removed only there. A joiner touching the edge of the string
+ * is removed as well when its other neighbour is an ASCII word character, so
+ * an obfuscated word split across streaming deltas (`o\u200D` + `pencode`)
+ * is still cleaned. A joiner next to non-ASCII text, and a delta that consists
+ * of nothing but a joiner (an emoji sequence split by the tokenizer), pass
+ * through untouched.
+ *
+ * U+200B ZERO WIDTH SPACE and U+FEFF have no shaping role and keep the
+ * unconditional removal they always had.
+ */
+
+const ANY_ZERO_WIDTH = /[\u200B-\u200D\uFEFF]/;
+const ZERO_WIDTH_SPACE_OR_BOM = /[\u200B\uFEFF]/g;
+const JOINER_BETWEEN_ASCII_WORD_CHARS =
+  /(?<=[A-Za-z0-9_])[\u200C\u200D]+(?=[A-Za-z0-9_]|$)|^[\u200C\u200D]+(?=[A-Za-z0-9_])/g;
+
+/**
+ * Strip the zero-width markers used for agent-word obfuscation while keeping
+ * ZWNJ/ZWJ that are part of the text (Persian half-space, Arabic/Indic
+ * shaping, emoji sequences).
+ */
+export function stripObfuscationZeroWidth(text: string): string {
+  if (!text || !ANY_ZERO_WIDTH.test(text)) return text;
+  return text.replace(ZERO_WIDTH_SPACE_OR_BOM, "").replace(JOINER_BETWEEN_ASCII_WORD_CHARS, "");
+}
diff --git a/tests/unit/12186-preserve-zwnj-zwj.test.ts b/tests/unit/12186-preserve-zwnj-zwj.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d60c595a9b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/unit/12186-preserve-zwnj-zwj.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,337 @@
+import test from "node:test";
+import assert from "node:assert/strict";
+
+// #12186 — the response pipeline strips every zero-width code point in
+// U+200B..U+200D to undo the request-side agent-word obfuscation (which inserts
+// one U+200D after the first letter of an ASCII word). That blanket strip also
+// deletes U+200C ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER and U+200D ZERO WIDTH JOINER where they
+// are part of the text itself: Persian half-space, Arabic/Indic shaping and
+// emoji ZWJ sequences. These tests pin that linguistic joiners survive while the
+// ASCII obfuscation marker is still removed.
+
+const { sanitizeOpenAIResponse, sanitizeStreamingChunk } =
+  await import("../../open-sse/handlers/responseSanitizer.ts");
+const { parseTextualToolCallCandidate } = await import("../../open-sse/utils/textualToolCall.ts");
+const { parseAntigravityTextualToolCall } =
+  await import("../../open-sse/executors/antigravity/sseCollect.ts");
+const { parseSSEToGeminiResponse } =
+  await import("../../open-sse/handlers/sseParser/geminiResponse.ts");
+const { translateNonStreamingResponse } =
+  await import("../../open-sse/handlers/responseTranslator.ts");
+const { geminiToOpenAIResponse } =
+  await import("../../open-sse/translator/response/gemini-to-openai.ts");
+const { FORMATS } = await import("../../open-sse/translator/formats.ts");
+const { stripObfuscationZeroWidth } = await import("../../open-sse/utils/zeroWidth.ts");
+const { obfuscateSensitiveWords, getSensitiveWords } =
+  await import("../../open-sse/services/claudeCodeObfuscation.ts");
+
+// Exact word from the issue report: ارائه + U+200C + دهنده ("provider").
+const PERSIAN_WORD = "ارائه\u200Cدهنده";
+// Family emoji: MAN + ZWJ + WOMAN + ZWJ + GIRL.
+const FAMILY_EMOJI = "\u{1F468}\u200D\u{1F469}\u200D\u{1F467}";
+
+function openAIChunk(delta: Record<string, unknown>) {
+  return {
+    id: "chatcmpl_12186",
+    object: "chat.completion.chunk",
+    created: 1,
+    model: "auto",
+    choices: [{ index: 0, delta, finish_reason: null }],
+  };
+}
+
+test("#12186 sanitizeOpenAIResponse keeps Persian ZWNJ in non-stream message content", () => {
+  const sanitized = sanitizeOpenAIResponse({
+    id: "chatcmpl_12186",
+    model: "auto",
+    choices: [
+      {
+        index: 0,
+        finish_reason: "stop",
+        message: { role: "assistant", content: PERSIAN_WORD },
+      },
+    ],
+  }) as unknown as { choices: { message: { content: string } }[] };
+
+  assert.equal(sanitized.choices[0].message.content, PERSIAN_WORD);
+});
+
+test("#12186 sanitizeOpenAIResponse keeps joiners in text but still de-obfuscates ASCII agent words", () => {
+  const sanitized = sanitizeOpenAIResponse({
+    id: "chatcmpl_12186_mixed",
+    model: "auto",
+    choices: [
+      {
+        index: 0,
+        finish_reason: "stop",
+        message: {
+          role: "assistant",
+          content: `o\u200Dpencode ${PERSIAN_WORD} می\u200Cروم کتاب\u200Cها ${FAMILY_EMOJI} c\u200Dursor`,
+        },
+      },
+    ],
+  }) as unknown as { choices: { message: { content: string } }[] };
+
+  assert.equal(
+    sanitized.choices[0].message.content,
+    `opencode ${PERSIAN_WORD} می\u200Cروم کتاب\u200Cها ${FAMILY_EMOJI} cursor`
+  );
+});
+
+test("#12186 sanitizeOpenAIResponse still strips U+200B and U+FEFF from message content", () => {
+  const sanitized = sanitizeOpenAIResponse({
+    id: "chatcmpl_12186_zwsp",
+    model: "auto",
+    choices: [
+      {
+        index: 0,
+        finish_reason: "stop",
+        message: { role: "assistant", content: "\uFEFFhello\u200B world o\u200Bpencode" },
+      },
+    ],
+  }) as unknown as { choices: { message: { content: string } }[] };
+
+  assert.equal(sanitized.choices[0].message.content, "hello world opencode");
+});
+
+test("#12186 sanitizeOpenAIResponse keeps Persian ZWNJ inside tool-call arguments", () => {
+  const args = JSON.stringify({ command: `echo ${PERSIAN_WORD}`, note: "o\u200Dpencode" });
+  const sanitized = sanitizeOpenAIResponse({
+    id: "chatcmpl_12186_tool",
+    model: "auto",
+    choices: [
+      {
+        index: 0,
+        finish_reason: "tool_calls",
+        message: {
+          role: "assistant",
+          content: "",
+          tool_calls: [
+            { id: "call_1", type: "function", function: { name: "run", arguments: args } },
+          ],
+        },
+      },
+    ],
+  }) as unknown as {
+    choices: { message: { tool_calls: { function: { arguments: string } }[] } }[];
+  };
+
+  assert.equal(
+    sanitized.choices[0].message.tool_calls[0].function.arguments,
+    JSON.stringify({ command: `echo ${PERSIAN_WORD}`, note: "opencode" })
+  );
+});
+
+test("#12186 sanitizeStreamingChunk keeps Persian ZWNJ in OpenAI delta content", () => {
+  const sanitized = sanitizeStreamingChunk(openAIChunk({ content: PERSIAN_WORD })) as unknown as {
+    choices: { delta: { content: string } }[];
+  };
+
+  assert.equal(sanitized.choices[0].delta.content, PERSIAN_WORD);
+});
+
+test("#12186 sanitizeStreamingChunk keeps an emoji ZWJ sequence in OpenAI delta content", () => {
+  const sanitized = sanitizeStreamingChunk(openAIChunk({ content: FAMILY_EMOJI })) as unknown as {
+    choices: { delta: { content: string } }[];
+  };
+
+  assert.equal(sanitized.choices[0].delta.content, FAMILY_EMOJI);
+});
+
+test("#12186 sanitizeStreamingChunk keeps a delta that is only a ZWJ (emoji sequence split by the tokenizer)", () => {
+  const sanitized = sanitizeStreamingChunk(openAIChunk({ content: "\u200D" })) as unknown as {
+    choices: { delta: { content: string } }[];
+  };
+
+  assert.equal(sanitized.choices[0].delta.content, "\u200D");
+});
+
+test("#12186 sanitizeStreamingChunk still de-obfuscates an ASCII word split across deltas", () => {
+  const first = sanitizeStreamingChunk(openAIChunk({ content: "o\u200D" })) as unknown as {
+    choices: { delta: { content: string } }[];
+  };
+  const second = sanitizeStreamingChunk(openAIChunk({ content: "\u200Dpencode" })) as unknown as {
+    choices: { delta: { content: string } }[];
+  };
+
+  assert.equal(first.choices[0].delta.content, "o");
+  assert.equal(second.choices[0].delta.content, "pencode");
+});
+
+test("#12186 sanitizeStreamingChunk keeps Persian ZWNJ in reasoning_content deltas", () => {
+  const sanitized = sanitizeStreamingChunk(
+    openAIChunk({ reasoning_content: `${PERSIAN_WORD} c\u200Dursor` })
+  ) as unknown as { choices: { delta: { reasoning_content: string } }[] };
+
+  assert.equal(sanitized.choices[0].delta.reasoning_content, `${PERSIAN_WORD} cursor`);
+});
+
+test("#12186 sanitizeStreamingChunk keeps Persian ZWNJ in Anthropic text_delta events", () => {
+  const sanitized = sanitizeStreamingChunk({
+    type: "content_block_delta",
+    index: 0,
+    delta: { type: "text_delta", text: `${PERSIAN_WORD} ${FAMILY_EMOJI} a\u200Dider` },
+  }) as unknown as { delta: { text: string } };
+
+  assert.equal(sanitized.delta.text, `${PERSIAN_WORD} ${FAMILY_EMOJI} aider`);
+});
+
+test("#12186 sanitizeStreamingChunk keeps Persian ZWNJ in native response.output_text.delta", () => {
+  const sanitized = sanitizeStreamingChunk({
+    type: "response.output_text.delta",
+    delta: PERSIAN_WORD,
+  }) as unknown as { delta: string };
+
+  assert.equal(sanitized.delta, PERSIAN_WORD);
+});
+
+test("#12186 sanitizeStreamingChunk keeps Persian ZWNJ in native response.output_text.done", () => {
+  const sanitized = sanitizeStreamingChunk({
+    type: "response.output_text.done",
+    text: `${PERSIAN_WORD} o\u200Dpencode`,
+  }) as unknown as { text: string };
+
+  assert.equal(sanitized.text, `${PERSIAN_WORD} opencode`);
+});
+
+test("#12186 parseTextualToolCallCandidate keeps Persian ZWNJ in textual tool-call arguments", () => {
+  const parsed = parseTextualToolCallCandidate(
+    `[Tool call: terminal]\nArguments: {"command":"echo ${PERSIAN_WORD} o\u200Dpencode"}`
+  );
+
+  assert.ok(parsed && parsed.kind === "complete");
+  assert.equal(parsed.name, "terminal");
+  assert.deepEqual(parsed.args, { command: `echo ${PERSIAN_WORD} opencode` });
+});
+
+test("#12186 parseAntigravityTextualToolCall keeps Persian ZWNJ in textual tool-call arguments", () => {
+  const parsed = parseAntigravityTextualToolCall(
+    `[Tool call: terminal]\nArguments: {"command":"echo ${PERSIAN_WORD} o\u200Dpencode"}`
+  );
+
+  assert.ok(parsed);
+  assert.equal(parsed.name, "terminal");
+  assert.deepEqual(parsed.args, { command: `echo ${PERSIAN_WORD} opencode` });
+});
+
+test("#12186 parseSSEToGeminiResponse keeps Persian ZWNJ in textual tool-call arguments", () => {
+  const text = `[Tool call: terminal]\nArguments: {"command":"echo ${PERSIAN_WORD}"}`;
+  const rawSSE = `data: ${JSON.stringify({
+    response: {
+      candidates: [{ content: { parts: [{ text }] }, finishReason: "STOP" }],
+    },
+  })}`;
+
+  const parsed = parseSSEToGeminiResponse(rawSSE, "gemini-2.5-flash") as {
+    choices: { message: { tool_calls: { function: { arguments: string } }[] } }[];
+  };
+
+  assert.ok(parsed);
+  assert.equal(
+    parsed.choices[0].message.tool_calls[0].function.arguments,
+    JSON.stringify({ command: `echo ${PERSIAN_WORD}` })
+  );
+});
+
+test("#12186 Gemini non-stream translation keeps Persian ZWNJ in textual tool-call arguments", () => {
+  const result = translateNonStreamingResponse(
+    {
+      responseId: "resp-12186",
+      modelVersion: "gemini-2.5-flash",
+      candidates: [
+        {
+          content: {
+            parts: [
+              {
+                text: `[Tool call: terminal]\nArguments: {"command":"echo ${PERSIAN_WORD} o\u200Dpencode"}`,
+              },
+            ],
+          },
+          finishReason: "STOP",
+        },
+      ],
+    },
+    FORMATS.GEMINI,
+    FORMATS.OPENAI
+  ) as { choices: { message: { tool_calls: { function: { arguments: string } }[] } }[] };
+
+  assert.equal(
+    result.choices[0].message.tool_calls[0].function.arguments,
+    JSON.stringify({ command: `echo ${PERSIAN_WORD} opencode` })
+  );
+});
+
+test("#12186 Gemini stream translation keeps Persian ZWNJ in text emitted before a textual tool call", () => {
+  const result = geminiToOpenAIResponse(
+    {
+      responseId: "resp-12186-stream",
+      modelVersion: "gemini-2.5-flash",
+      candidates: [
+        {
+          content: {
+            parts: [
+              { text: `${PERSIAN_WORD}: [Tool call: terminal]\nArguments: {"command":"whoami"}` },
+            ],
+          },
+          finishReason: "STOP",
+        },
+      ],
+    },
+    { toolCalls: new Map() }
+  ) as Array<{ choices?: { delta?: { content?: string; tool_calls?: unknown[] } }[] }>;
+
+  const leakedContent = result.map((event) => event.choices?.[0]?.delta?.content || "").join("");
+  assert.equal(leakedContent, `${PERSIAN_WORD}: `);
+
+  const toolCalls = result.flatMap((event) => event.choices?.[0]?.delta?.tool_calls || []);
+  assert.equal(toolCalls.length, 1);
+});
+
+test("#12186 stripObfuscationZeroWidth keeps ZWNJ/ZWJ that belong to the text", () => {
+  for (const text of [
+    PERSIAN_WORD,
+    "می\u200Cروم نمی\u200Cدانم کتاب\u200Cها",
+    FAMILY_EMOJI,
+    "\u{1F3F3}\u{FE0F}\u200D\u{1F308}",
+    "\u200D",
+    "\u{1F468}\u200D",
+    "\u200D\u{1F469}",
+    "\u200C",
+  ]) {
+    assert.equal(stripObfuscationZeroWidth(text), text);
+  }
+});
+
+test("#12186 stripObfuscationZeroWidth reverses the request-side obfuscation for every default agent word", () => {
+  const original = `Use ${getSensitiveWords().join(", ")} in ${PERSIAN_WORD} ${FAMILY_EMOJI}`;
+  const obfuscated = obfuscateSensitiveWords(original);
+
+  assert.notEqual(obfuscated, original);
+  assert.equal(stripObfuscationZeroWidth(obfuscated), original);
+});
+
+test("#12186 stripObfuscationZeroWidth removes joiners only between ASCII word characters", () => {
+  assert.equal(stripObfuscationZeroWidth("o\u200Dpencode"), "opencode");
+  assert.equal(stripObfuscationZeroWidth("roo_\u200Dcline 4\u200D2"), "roo_cline 42");
+  assert.equal(stripObfuscationZeroWidth("a\u200Cb"), "ab");
+  assert.equal(stripObfuscationZeroWidth("o\u200D\u200D\u200Cpencode"), "opencode");
+  assert.equal(stripObfuscationZeroWidth("o\u200D"), "o");
+  assert.equal(stripObfuscationZeroWidth("\u200Dpencode"), "pencode");
+  assert.equal(stripObfuscationZeroWidth("x \u200D y"), "x \u200D y");
+  // Neither side ASCII-adjacent on both ends: a joiner next to whitespace is not
+  // an obfuscation marker and is left alone.
+  assert.equal(stripObfuscationZeroWidth("x\u200D \u200Dy"), "x\u200D \u200Dy");
+});
+
+test("#12186 stripObfuscationZeroWidth still removes U+200B and U+FEFF anywhere", () => {
+  assert.equal(stripObfuscationZeroWidth(`\u200B${PERSIAN_WORD}\uFEFF`), PERSIAN_WORD);
+  assert.equal(stripObfuscationZeroWidth("\uFEFF"), "");
+  assert.equal(stripObfuscationZeroWidth("o\u200B\u200Dp"), "op");
+  assert.equal(stripObfuscationZeroWidth("\u200BКак исправить"), "Как исправить");
+});
+
+test("#12186 stripObfuscationZeroWidth returns the same reference when nothing needs stripping", () => {
+  const text = `plain ${PERSIAN_WORD}`;
+  assert.equal(stripObfuscationZeroWidth(text), text);
+  assert.equal(stripObfuscationZeroWidth(""), "");
+});