diff --git a/changelog.d/fixes/14009-perplexity-web-preserve-spaces.md b/changelog.d/fixes/14009-perplexity-web-preserve-spaces.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a27f1d5f23
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/fixes/14009-perplexity-web-preserve-spaces.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+- **fix(providers):** Perplexity Web no longer collapses runs of spaces in non-streaming answers (the path tool mode always takes), which flattened code indentation in `write_file` arguments and plain code blocks; citation markers are still removed with single spacing left behind ([#13968](https://github.com/diegosouzapw/OmniRoute/issues/13968))
diff --git a/open-sse/executors/perplexity-web/protocol.ts b/open-sse/executors/perplexity-web/protocol.ts
index 9c8de0f8c0..8c2419f361 100644
--- a/open-sse/executors/perplexity-web/protocol.ts
+++ b/open-sse/executors/perplexity-web/protocol.ts
@@ -91,12 +91,14 @@ export const THINKING_MAP: Record<string, string> = {
   "pplx-grok-4.6": "grok46medium",
 };
 
-export const CITATION_RE = /\[\d+\]/g;
+// Eats the space before the marker so "text [1] more" cleans to "text more".
+// Never squash runs of spaces here: the non-streaming path (tool mode always)
+// would flatten code indentation (#13968).
+export const CITATION_RE = / ?\[\d+\]/g;
 export const GROK_TAG_RE = /<grok:[^>]*>.*?<\/grok:[^>]*>/gs;
 export const GROK_SELF_RE = /<grok:[^>]*\/>/g;
 export const XML_DECL_RE = /<[?]xml[^?]*[?]>/g;
 export const RESPONSE_TAG_RE = /<\/?response\b[^>]*>/gi;
-export const MULTI_SPACE = / {2,}/g;
 export const MULTI_NL = /\n{3,}/g;
 
 // ─── Helpers ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
@@ -109,7 +111,6 @@ export function cleanResponse(text: string, strip = true): string {
   t = t.replace(GROK_SELF_RE, "");
   t = t.replace(RESPONSE_TAG_RE, "");
   if (strip) {
-    t = t.replace(MULTI_SPACE, " ");
     t = t.replace(MULTI_NL, "\n\n");
     t = t.trim();
   }
diff --git a/tests/unit/perplexity-web-preserve-spaces-13968.test.ts b/tests/unit/perplexity-web-preserve-spaces-13968.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9ab672d7ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/unit/perplexity-web-preserve-spaces-13968.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+import { test } from "node:test";
+import assert from "node:assert/strict";
+
+import { cleanResponse } from "../../open-sse/executors/perplexity-web/protocol.ts";
+
+// #13968: the non-streaming path (which tool mode always uses) collapsed every
+// run of spaces to one, so code written through perplexity-web lost its
+// indentation. Runs of spaces must survive; citation cleanup must still leave
+// single spacing behind.
+
+const PY = ["```python", "def f(x):", "    if x:", "        return 1", "    return 0", "```"].join(
+  "\n"
+);
+
+test("cleanResponse keeps leading indentation and internal runs of spaces", () => {
+  assert.equal(cleanResponse(PY), PY);
+  assert.equal(cleanResponse("a = 1    # aligned comment"), "a = 1    # aligned comment");
+});
+
+test("cleanResponse still removes citations without leaving double spaces", () => {
+  assert.equal(cleanResponse("text [1] more"), "text more");
+  assert.equal(cleanResponse("text [1][2] more"), "text more");
+  assert.equal(cleanResponse("text [3]."), "text.");
+  assert.equal(cleanResponse("text[4] more"), "text more");
+});
+
+test("cleanResponse trim and blank-line squashing are unchanged", () => {
+  assert.equal(cleanResponse("  hello  "), "hello");
+  assert.equal(cleanResponse("a\n\n\n\nb"), "a\n\nb");
+  assert.equal(cleanResponse("  keep  ", false), "  keep  ");
+});