diff --git a/changelog.d/fixes/6955-perplexity-web-empty-content.md b/changelog.d/fixes/6955-perplexity-web-empty-content.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ac59619904
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/fixes/6955-perplexity-web-empty-content.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+- **fix(sse):** `perplexity-web`'s default `pplx-auto`/`pplx-sonar` targets now post `mode: "copilot"` (with `pplx-sonar` mapped to `model_preference: "turbo"` instead of `experimental`), match Perplexity's `event: end_of_stream` SSE terminator instead of OpenAI's `[DONE]`, and fall back to the COMPLETED frame's double-encoded FINAL step-blob when no `diff_block`/`markdown_block` streamed — fixing `[perplexity-web/pplx-sonar] Provider returned empty content` against the current schematized `www.perplexity.ai` SSE API. (thanks @artickc)
diff --git a/config/quality/eslint-suppressions.json b/config/quality/eslint-suppressions.json
index af68f5c97a..aed651921b 100644
--- a/config/quality/eslint-suppressions.json
+++ b/config/quality/eslint-suppressions.json
@@ -1672,11 +1672,6 @@
       "count": 2
     }
   },
-  "tests/unit/perplexity-web.test.ts": {
-    "@typescript-eslint/no-explicit-any": {
-      "count": 11
-    }
-  },
   "tests/unit/persist-429-cooldown-account-fallback.test.ts": {
     "@typescript-eslint/no-explicit-any": {
       "count": 7
diff --git a/config/quality/file-size-baseline.json b/config/quality/file-size-baseline.json
index 44091f15fb..c75f434896 100644
--- a/config/quality/file-size-baseline.json
+++ b/config/quality/file-size-baseline.json
@@ -327,7 +327,7 @@
     "tests/unit/model-sync-route.test.ts": 1016,
     "tests/unit/models-catalog-route.test.ts": 1605,
     "tests/unit/oauth-providers-config.test.ts": 845,
-    "tests/unit/perplexity-web.test.ts": 999,
+    "tests/unit/perplexity-web.test.ts": 1200,
     "tests/unit/provider-models-route.test.ts": 1752,
     "tests/unit/provider-validation-specialty.test.ts": 2980,
     "tests/unit/providers-page-utils.test.ts": 1294,
diff --git a/open-sse/executors/perplexity-web.ts b/open-sse/executors/perplexity-web.ts
index 21e9148882..ece96e0b64 100644
--- a/open-sse/executors/perplexity-web.ts
+++ b/open-sse/executors/perplexity-web.ts
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ import { sanitizeErrorMessage } from "../utils/error.ts";
 import {
   PPLX_SSE_ENDPOINT,
   PPLX_USER_AGENT,
+  PPLX_STREAM_EOF_SYMBOL,
   MODEL_MAP,
   THINKING_MAP,
   cleanResponse,
@@ -423,7 +424,8 @@ export class PerplexityWebExecutor extends BaseExecutor {
         body: JSON.stringify(pplxBody),
         signal: signal ?? null,
         stream: true,
-        streamEofSymbol: "[DONE]",
+        // Live wire terminator is `event: end_of_stream` (not OpenAI `[DONE]`).
+        streamEofSymbol: PPLX_STREAM_EOF_SYMBOL,
       });
     } catch (err) {
       const isTlsUnavail = err instanceof TlsClientUnavailableError;
@@ -469,6 +471,37 @@ export class PerplexityWebExecutor extends BaseExecutor {
       return { response: errResp, url: PPLX_SSE_ENDPOINT, headers, transformedBody: pplxBody };
     }
 
+    // If the TLS client buffered the body (looksLikeSse false-negative, or a
+    // non-streaming error page), promote a text body that still looks like SSE
+    // into a ReadableStream so extractContent can recover the answer.
+    if (!response.body && response.text) {
+      const buffered = response.text;
+      if (/^(?:\s*)(?:data|event|id|retry):/im.test(buffered) || buffered.includes("\ndata:")) {
+        const encoder = new TextEncoder();
+        response = {
+          ...response,
+          body: new ReadableStream<Uint8Array>({
+            start(controller) {
+              controller.enqueue(encoder.encode(buffered));
+              controller.close();
+            },
+          }),
+          text: null,
+        };
+      } else {
+        const errResp = new Response(
+          JSON.stringify({
+            error: {
+              message: `Perplexity returned non-SSE body: ${sanitizeErrorMessage(buffered.slice(0, 240))}`,
+              type: "upstream_error",
+            },
+          }),
+          { status: 502, headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" } }
+        );
+        return { response: errResp, url: PPLX_SSE_ENDPOINT, headers, transformedBody: pplxBody };
+      }
+    }
+
     if (!response.body) {
       const errResp = new Response(
         JSON.stringify({
diff --git a/open-sse/executors/perplexity-web/protocol.ts b/open-sse/executors/perplexity-web/protocol.ts
index 8a0434aeba..73b5d4e139 100644
--- a/open-sse/executors/perplexity-web/protocol.ts
+++ b/open-sse/executors/perplexity-web/protocol.ts
@@ -38,16 +38,28 @@ export const PPLX_SUPPORTED_BLOCK_USE_CASES = [
   "inline_claims",
   "unified_assets",
   "workflow_steps",
+  "workflow_widgets",
+  "navigation_results",
   "background_agents",
 ];
+// Perplexity's live SSE terminator (not OpenAI's `data: [DONE]`). Using the wrong
+// EOF symbol can truncate or hang the Firefox-TLS stream tailer before answer
+// chunks land — which surfaces as "Provider returned empty content".
+export const PPLX_STREAM_EOF_SYMBOL = "event: end_of_stream";
 // Firefox 148 — must match the `firefox_148` TLS profile used by perplexityTlsClient.
 // A mismatched UA vs TLS fingerprint is itself a Cloudflare bot signal (issue #2459).
 export const PPLX_USER_AGENT =
   "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.15; rv:148.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/148.0";
 
+// mode / model_preference pairs. Live www.perplexity.ai still posts mode:"copilot"
+// for the default turbo path; search mode is used for the curated catalog models.
 export const MODEL_MAP: Record<string, [string, string]> = {
-  "pplx-auto": ["search", "pplx_pro"],
-  "pplx-sonar": ["search", "experimental"],
+  // pplx-auto/pplx-sonar use "copilot" mode (was "search", which for pplx-sonar
+  // maps to "experimental" — that model no longer streams answer-text blocks
+  // for many sessions → empty content, issue #6955). The live web client uses
+  // mode:"copilot" + model_preference:"turbo" for the default turbo path.
+  "pplx-auto": ["copilot", "pplx_pro"],
+  "pplx-sonar": ["copilot", "turbo"],
   "pplx-gpt-5.6-terra": ["search", "gpt56_terra"],
   "pplx-gpt-5.6-sol": ["search", "gpt56_sol"],
   "pplx-gemini": ["search", "gemini31pro_high"],
@@ -288,6 +300,7 @@ export function buildPplxRequestBody(
     override_no_search: false,
     client_search_results_cache_key: requestId,
     should_ask_for_mcp_tool_confirmation: true,
+    supports_tool_approval_modal: true,
     browser_agent_allow_once_from_toggle: false,
     force_enable_browser_agent: false,
     supported_features: ["browser_agent_permission_banner_v1.1"],
@@ -364,8 +377,15 @@ export function applyMarkdownDiff(acc: MarkdownAccumulator, patches: PplxDiffPat
   for (const patch of patches) {
     const path = patch.path ?? "";
     if (path === "") {
-      const value = (patch.value ?? {}) as { chunks?: unknown };
-      acc.chunks = Array.isArray(value.chunks) ? value.chunks.map((c) => String(c)) : [];
+      const value = (patch.value ?? {}) as { chunks?: unknown; answer?: unknown };
+      if (Array.isArray(value.chunks)) {
+        acc.chunks = value.chunks.map((c) => String(c));
+      } else if (typeof value.answer === "string" && value.answer.length > 0) {
+        // Some COMPLETED/replace frames only materialize `answer` (no chunks).
+        acc.chunks = [value.answer];
+      } else {
+        acc.chunks = [];
+      }
       continue;
     }
     const chunkMatch = /^\/chunks\/(\d+)$/.exec(path);
@@ -376,6 +396,93 @@ export function applyMarkdownDiff(acc: MarkdownAccumulator, patches: PplxDiffPat
   }
 }
 
+/**
+ * Extract the assistant answer from the COMPLETED frame's `text` step-blob.
+ *
+ * Live shape (Jul 2026 browser capture):
+ *   text: '[{"step_type":"FINAL","content":{"answer":"{\\"answer\\":\\"Hi…\\",\\"chunks\\":[…]}"}}]'
+ *
+ * The nested `content.answer` is often a *double-encoded* JSON string. Used as a
+ * safety net when diff_block / markdown_block frames were missed (truncated TLS
+ * stream, FINAL-only delivery, etc.) so we don't return empty content.
+ */
+export function extractAnswerFromFinalText(text: string | undefined | null): string | null {
+  if (!text || typeof text !== "string") return null;
+  const trimmed = text.trim();
+  if (!trimmed) return null;
+
+  // Plain non-JSON text (legacy non-schematized path).
+  if (!trimmed.startsWith("{") && !trimmed.startsWith("[")) {
+    return trimmed;
+  }
+
+  try {
+    const parsed = JSON.parse(trimmed) as unknown;
+    const steps = Array.isArray(parsed) ? parsed : [parsed];
+    for (const step of steps) {
+      if (!step || typeof step !== "object") continue;
+      const s = step as Record<string, unknown>;
+      const stepType = String(s.step_type || s.stepType || "");
+      if (stepType && stepType !== "FINAL") continue;
+
+      const content = s.content as Record<string, unknown> | string | undefined;
+      let rawAnswer: unknown =
+        typeof content === "string"
+          ? content
+          : content && typeof content === "object"
+            ? (content as Record<string, unknown>).answer
+            : undefined;
+      if (rawAnswer == null && typeof s.answer === "string") rawAnswer = s.answer;
+      if (rawAnswer == null) continue;
+
+      if (typeof rawAnswer === "string") {
+        const inner = rawAnswer.trim();
+        if (!inner) continue;
+        // Double-encoded JSON blob: {"answer":"…","chunks":[…],"structured_answer":[…]}
+        if (inner.startsWith("{") || inner.startsWith("[")) {
+          try {
+            const obj = JSON.parse(inner) as Record<string, unknown>;
+            if (typeof obj.answer === "string" && obj.answer.trim()) return obj.answer;
+            if (Array.isArray(obj.chunks) && obj.chunks.length > 0) {
+              return obj.chunks.map((c) => String(c)).join("");
+            }
+            if (Array.isArray(obj.structured_answer)) {
+              const joined = (obj.structured_answer as Array<Record<string, unknown>>)
+                .map((b) => (typeof b?.text === "string" ? b.text : ""))
+                .join("");
+              if (joined.trim()) return joined;
+            }
+          } catch {
+            // Fall through — treat as plain markdown.
+          }
+        }
+        return inner;
+      }
+    }
+  } catch {
+    return null;
+  }
+  return null;
+}
+
+/** Pick the longest reconstructed answer across dual ask_text / ask_text_N_markdown tracks. */
+export function longestMarkdownAnswer(
+  mdState: Map<string, MarkdownAccumulator>,
+  preferredUsage: string | null
+): { usage: string | null; answer: string } {
+  let bestUsage: string | null = preferredUsage;
+  let bestAnswer = preferredUsage ? (mdState.get(preferredUsage)?.chunks ?? []).join("") : "";
+
+  for (const [usage, acc] of mdState) {
+    const joined = (acc.chunks ?? []).join("");
+    if (joined.length > bestAnswer.length) {
+      bestAnswer = joined;
+      bestUsage = usage;
+    }
+  }
+  return { usage: bestUsage, answer: bestAnswer };
+}
+
 export async function* extractContent(
   eventStream: ReadableStream<Uint8Array>,
   signal?: AbortSignal | null
@@ -387,6 +494,7 @@ export async function* extractContent(
   // Per-usage reconstructed answer-text blocks + the locked primary usage.
   const mdState = new Map<string, MarkdownAccumulator>();
   let primaryUsage: string | null = null;
+  let lastEventText: string | undefined;
 
   for await (const event of readPplxSseEvents(eventStream, signal)) {
     if (event.error_code || event.error_message) {
@@ -398,6 +506,7 @@ export async function* extractContent(
     }
 
     if (event.backend_uuid) backendUuid = event.backend_uuid;
+    if (event.text) lastEventText = event.text;
 
     const blocks = event.blocks ?? [];
     for (const block of blocks) {
@@ -439,6 +548,16 @@ export async function* extractContent(
       // Content: answer-text blocks (schematized diff frames OR materialized
       // markdown_block on the final COMPLETED frame).
       if (!isAnswerTextUsage(usage)) continue;
+      // Only apply markdown patches when the diff targets markdown_block (or field
+      // is absent on older frames). Ignore answer_tabs/plan/etc. diffs that share
+      // the same event but different field names.
+      if (
+        block.diff_block &&
+        block.diff_block.field &&
+        block.diff_block.field !== "markdown_block"
+      ) {
+        continue;
+      }
       let acc = mdState.get(usage);
       if (!acc) {
         acc = { chunks: [] };
@@ -464,21 +583,20 @@ export async function* extractContent(
       }
     }
 
-    // Emit at most one content delta per event, from the locked primary usage.
-    if (primaryUsage) {
-      const currentAnswer = (mdState.get(primaryUsage)?.chunks ?? []).join("");
-      if (currentAnswer.length > seenLen) {
-        const delta = currentAnswer.slice(seenLen);
-        fullAnswer = currentAnswer;
-        seenLen = currentAnswer.length;
-        yield { delta, answer: fullAnswer, backendUuid: backendUuid ?? undefined };
-      }
+    // Emit at most one content delta per event from the longest reconstructed
+    // answer track (ask_text and ask_text_0_markdown often stream in parallel).
+    const { answer: currentAnswer } = longestMarkdownAnswer(mdState, primaryUsage);
+    if (currentAnswer.length > seenLen) {
+      const delta = currentAnswer.slice(seenLen);
+      fullAnswer = currentAnswer;
+      seenLen = currentAnswer.length;
+      yield { delta, answer: fullAnswer, backendUuid: backendUuid ?? undefined };
     }
 
     // Legacy fallback: a plain non-JSON `text` field with no structured blocks.
     // The schematized API's `text` field is a JSON step-blob (not user-facing),
     // so only use it when there are no answer-text blocks at all.
-    if (!primaryUsage && blocks.length === 0 && event.text) {
+    if (!primaryUsage && mdState.size === 0 && blocks.length === 0 && event.text) {
       const t = event.text.trim();
       const looksLikeJson = t.startsWith("{") || t.startsWith("[");
       if (!looksLikeJson && t.length > seenLen) {
@@ -492,7 +610,30 @@ export async function* extractContent(
     // Only stop on the terminal COMPLETED frame. A `final:true` flag can appear
     // on a still-PENDING frame BEFORE the COMPLETED frame that materializes the
     // full markdown_block — breaking on `final` there drops the answer.
-    if (event.status === "COMPLETED") break;
+    if (event.status === "COMPLETED") {
+      // Safety net: if diff/markdown tracks stayed empty, pull the answer from
+      // the COMPLETED frame's double-encoded FINAL step blob.
+      if (!fullAnswer.trim()) {
+        const fromText = extractAnswerFromFinalText(event.text || lastEventText);
+        if (fromText && fromText.trim()) {
+          const delta = fromText.slice(seenLen);
+          fullAnswer = fromText;
+          seenLen = fromText.length;
+          if (delta) {
+            yield { delta, answer: fullAnswer, backendUuid: backendUuid ?? undefined };
+          }
+        }
+      }
+      break;
+    }
+  }
+
+  // End-of-stream without a COMPLETED frame still try the last text blob.
+  if (!fullAnswer.trim() && lastEventText) {
+    const fromText = extractAnswerFromFinalText(lastEventText);
+    if (fromText && fromText.trim()) {
+      fullAnswer = fromText;
+    }
   }
 
   yield { delta: "", answer: fullAnswer, backendUuid: backendUuid ?? undefined, done: true };
diff --git a/tests/unit/perplexity-web.test.ts b/tests/unit/perplexity-web.test.ts
index 24f24b069e..1d892e1655 100644
--- a/tests/unit/perplexity-web.test.ts
+++ b/tests/unit/perplexity-web.test.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,22 @@
 import test from "node:test";
 import assert from "node:assert/strict";
 
+// ─── Response JSON shapes (real types derived from OpenAI-compatible bodies) ─
+
+interface PplxChatCompletionJson {
+  id: string;
+  object: string;
+  choices: Array<{
+    message: { role: string; content: string };
+    finish_reason: string;
+  }>;
+  usage: { total_tokens: number };
+}
+
+interface PplxErrorJson {
+  error: { message: string };
+}
+
 // ─── Import the executor and its dependencies ──────────────────────────────
 
 const { PerplexityWebExecutor } = await import("../../open-sse/executors/perplexity-web.ts");
@@ -13,7 +29,7 @@ const { __setTlsFetchOverrideForTesting, TlsClientUnavailableError } =
 // global fetch. Install one persistent bridge so the tests below can keep stubbing
 // globalThis.fetch (returning a Response) and have it surface as a TlsFetchResult.
 __setTlsFetchOverrideForTesting(async (url, opts) => {
-  const res = await (globalThis.fetch as any)(url, opts);
+  const res = await (globalThis.fetch as typeof fetch)(url, opts);
   return {
     status: res.status,
     headers: res.headers,
@@ -128,7 +144,7 @@ test("Non-streaming: simple text response", async () => {
     });
 
     assert.equal(result.response.status, 200);
-    const json = (await result.response.json()) as any;
+    const json = (await result.response.json()) as PplxChatCompletionJson;
     assert.equal(json.object, "chat.completion");
     assert.equal(json.choices[0].message.role, "assistant");
     assert.equal(json.choices[0].message.content, "Hello, world!");
@@ -168,7 +184,7 @@ test("Non-streaming: strips citations from response", async () => {
       log: null,
     });
 
-    const json = (await result.response.json()) as any;
+    const json = (await result.response.json()) as PplxChatCompletionJson;
     assert.ok(!json.choices[0].message.content.includes("[1]"));
     assert.ok(!json.choices[0].message.content.includes("[2]"));
     assert.ok(!json.choices[0].message.content.includes("[3]"));
@@ -474,7 +490,7 @@ test("Error: 401 returns auth error message", async () => {
     });
 
     assert.equal(result.response.status, 401);
-    const json = (await result.response.json()) as any;
+    const json = (await result.response.json()) as PplxErrorJson;
     assert.ok(json.error.message.includes("auth failed"));
     assert.ok(json.error.message.includes("session-token"));
   } finally {
@@ -496,7 +512,7 @@ test("Error: 429 returns rate limit message", async () => {
     });
 
     assert.equal(result.response.status, 429);
-    const json = (await result.response.json()) as any;
+    const json = (await result.response.json()) as PplxErrorJson;
     assert.ok(json.error.message.includes("rate limited"));
   } finally {
     restore();
@@ -517,7 +533,7 @@ test("Error: fetch failure returns 502", async () => {
     });
 
     assert.equal(result.response.status, 502);
-    const json = (await result.response.json()) as any;
+    const json = (await result.response.json()) as PplxErrorJson;
     assert.ok(json.error.message.includes("ECONNREFUSED"));
   } finally {
     restore();
@@ -536,7 +552,7 @@ test("Error: empty messages returns 400", async () => {
   });
 
   assert.equal(result.response.status, 400);
-  const json = (await result.response.json()) as any;
+  const json = (await result.response.json()) as PplxErrorJson;
   assert.ok(json.error.message.includes("Missing or empty messages"));
 });
 
@@ -572,7 +588,7 @@ test("Non-streaming: Perplexity stream error returns 502", async () => {
     });
 
     assert.equal(result.response.status, 502);
-    const json = (await result.response.json()) as any;
+    const json = (await result.response.json()) as PplxErrorJson;
     assert.ok(json.error.message.includes("Too many requests"));
   } finally {
     restore();
@@ -804,6 +820,54 @@ test("Model mapping: GPT-5.6 Terra sends its current internal preference", async
   }
 });
 
+test("Model mapping: pplx-sonar maps to turbo/copilot (live browser default)", async () => {
+  let capturedBody = null;
+  const original = globalThis.fetch;
+  globalThis.fetch = async (url, opts) => {
+    capturedBody = JSON.parse(opts.body);
+    return new Response(
+      mockPplxStream([
+        {
+          blocks: [
+            {
+              intended_usage: "markdown",
+              markdown_block: { chunks: ["ok"], progress: "DONE" },
+            },
+          ],
+          status: "COMPLETED",
+        },
+      ]),
+      { status: 200, headers: { "Content-Type": "text/event-stream" } }
+    );
+  };
+
+  try {
+    const executor = new PerplexityWebExecutor();
+    await executor.execute({
+      model: "pplx-sonar",
+      body: { messages: [{ role: "user", content: "hello" }], stream: false },
+      stream: false,
+      credentials: { apiKey: "test" },
+      signal: AbortSignal.timeout(10000),
+      log: null,
+    });
+
+    assert.equal(capturedBody.params.model_preference, "turbo");
+    assert.equal(capturedBody.params.mode, "copilot");
+    assert.equal(capturedBody.params.supports_tool_approval_modal, true);
+    assert.ok(
+      capturedBody.params.supported_block_use_cases.includes("workflow_widgets"),
+      "payload must advertise workflow_widgets like the live browser"
+    );
+    assert.ok(
+      capturedBody.params.supported_block_use_cases.includes("navigation_results"),
+      "payload must advertise navigation_results like the live browser"
+    );
+  } finally {
+    globalThis.fetch = original;
+  }
+});
+
 test("Model mapping: thinking mode uses thinking variant", async () => {
   let capturedBody = null;
   const original = globalThis.fetch;
@@ -841,6 +905,7 @@ test("Model mapping: thinking mode uses thinking variant", async () => {
     });
 
     assert.equal(capturedBody.params.model_preference, "claude50sonnetthinking");
+    // Thinking variants still go through mode "search" (THINKING_MAP path).
     assert.equal(capturedBody.params.mode, "search");
   } finally {
     globalThis.fetch = original;
@@ -864,13 +929,176 @@ test("Non-streaming: falls back to text field when no blocks", async () => {
       log: null,
     });
 
-    const json = (await result.response.json()) as any;
+    const json = (await result.response.json()) as PplxChatCompletionJson;
     assert.ok(json.choices[0].message.content.includes("Fallback answer text"));
   } finally {
     restore();
   }
 });
 
+// Live COMPLETED frame carries the answer only in a double-encoded FINAL step
+// blob (no markdown_block / diff_block). Without this fallback the executor
+// returns empty content → chatCore 502 "Provider returned empty content".
+test("Non-streaming: recovers answer from COMPLETED FINAL text step-blob", async () => {
+  const answerObj = {
+    answer: "Hi Bilal — nice to meet you! How can I help today?",
+    chunks: ["Hi Bilal — ", "nice to meet ", "you! How can I ", "help to", "day?"],
+    web_results: [],
+  };
+  const pplxEvents = [
+    {
+      status: "COMPLETED",
+      final: true,
+      final_sse_message: true,
+      blocks: [],
+      text: JSON.stringify([
+        { step_type: "INITIAL_QUERY", content: { query: "hello" } },
+        { step_type: "FINAL", content: { answer: JSON.stringify(answerObj) } },
+      ]),
+    },
+  ];
+
+  const restore = mockFetch(200, pplxEvents);
+  try {
+    const executor = new PerplexityWebExecutor();
+    const result = await executor.execute({
+      model: "pplx-sonar",
+      body: { messages: [{ role: "user", content: "hello" }], stream: false },
+      stream: false,
+      credentials: { apiKey: "test-cookie" },
+      signal: AbortSignal.timeout(10000),
+      log: null,
+    });
+
+    assert.equal(result.response.status, 200);
+    const json = (await result.response.json()) as {
+      choices: Array<{ message: { content: string } }>;
+    };
+    assert.equal(
+      json.choices[0].message.content,
+      "Hi Bilal — nice to meet you! How can I help today?"
+    );
+  } finally {
+    restore();
+  }
+});
+
+// Mirrors the Jul 2026 browser capture: dual ask_text + ask_text_0_markdown
+// tracks stream the same chunks via diff_block; parser must not double-count
+// and must assemble the full answer.
+test("Schematized API: dual ask_text tracks do not double-count", async () => {
+  const pplxEvents = [
+    {
+      status: "PENDING",
+      blocks: [
+        {
+          intended_usage: "ask_text_0_markdown",
+          diff_block: {
+            field: "markdown_block",
+            patches: [
+              {
+                op: "replace",
+                path: "",
+                value: { progress: "IN_PROGRESS", chunks: ["Hi Bilal — "] },
+              },
+            ],
+          },
+        },
+        {
+          intended_usage: "ask_text",
+          diff_block: {
+            field: "markdown_block",
+            patches: [
+              {
+                op: "replace",
+                path: "",
+                value: { progress: "IN_PROGRESS", chunks: ["Hi Bilal — "] },
+              },
+            ],
+          },
+        },
+      ],
+    },
+    {
+      status: "PENDING",
+      blocks: [
+        {
+          intended_usage: "ask_text_0_markdown",
+          diff_block: {
+            field: "markdown_block",
+            patches: [{ op: "add", path: "/chunks/1", value: "nice to meet you!" }],
+          },
+        },
+        {
+          intended_usage: "ask_text",
+          diff_block: {
+            field: "markdown_block",
+            patches: [{ op: "add", path: "/chunks/1", value: "nice to meet you!" }],
+          },
+        },
+      ],
+    },
+    {
+      status: "COMPLETED",
+      final: true,
+      blocks: [
+        {
+          intended_usage: "ask_text_0_markdown",
+          markdown_block: {
+            progress: "DONE",
+            answer: "Hi Bilal — nice to meet you!",
+            chunks: ["Hi Bilal — nice to meet you!"],
+          },
+        },
+      ],
+    },
+  ];
+
+  const restore = mockFetch(200, pplxEvents);
+  try {
+    const executor = new PerplexityWebExecutor();
+    const result = await executor.execute({
+      model: "pplx-sonar",
+      body: { messages: [{ role: "user", content: "hello" }], stream: false },
+      stream: false,
+      credentials: { apiKey: "test-cookie" },
+      signal: AbortSignal.timeout(10000),
+      log: null,
+    });
+
+    assert.equal(result.response.status, 200);
+    const json = (await result.response.json()) as {
+      choices: Array<{ message: { content: string } }>;
+    };
+    assert.equal(json.choices[0].message.content, "Hi Bilal — nice to meet you!");
+  } finally {
+    restore();
+  }
+});
+
+// Unit: extractAnswerFromFinalText pure helper
+test("extractAnswerFromFinalText: double-encoded FINAL step blob", async () => {
+  const { extractAnswerFromFinalText } = await import(
+    "../../open-sse/executors/perplexity-web/protocol.ts"
+  );
+  const text = JSON.stringify([
+    { step_type: "INITIAL_QUERY", content: { query: "hello" } },
+    {
+      step_type: "FINAL",
+      content: {
+        answer: JSON.stringify({
+          answer: "Recovered from blob",
+          chunks: ["Recovered ", "from blob"],
+        }),
+      },
+    },
+  ]);
+  assert.equal(extractAnswerFromFinalText(text), "Recovered from blob");
+  assert.equal(extractAnswerFromFinalText("plain text answer"), "plain text answer");
+  assert.equal(extractAnswerFromFinalText(null), null);
+  assert.equal(extractAnswerFromFinalText(""), null);
+});
+
 // ─── Test: Request URL and headers ──────────────────────────────────────────
 
 test("Request: posts to correct Perplexity SSE endpoint", async () => {
@@ -934,7 +1162,7 @@ test("Error: Cloudflare 403 challenge returns a distinct (non-cookie) error", as
     });
 
     assert.equal(result.response.status, 403);
-    const json = (await result.response.json()) as any;
+    const json = (await result.response.json()) as PplxErrorJson;
     assert.match(json.error.message, /Cloudflare/i);
     assert.ok(!/session-token/i.test(json.error.message), "must not blame the cookie");
   } finally {
@@ -956,7 +1184,7 @@ test("Error: TlsClientUnavailableError returns 502 with install hint", async ()
     });
 
     assert.equal(result.response.status, 502);
-    const json = (await result.response.json()) as any;
+    const json = (await result.response.json()) as PplxErrorJson;
     assert.match(json.error.message, /TLS client unavailable/i);
   } finally {
     restore();