diff --git a/server/internal/sanitize/html.go b/server/internal/sanitize/html.go
index 89ca4e094..5d1971f37 100644
--- a/server/internal/sanitize/html.go
+++ b/server/internal/sanitize/html.go
@@ -1,7 +1,9 @@
 package sanitize
 
 import (
+	"fmt"
 	"regexp"
+	"strings"
 
 	"github.com/microcosm-cc/bluemonday"
 )
@@ -11,11 +13,6 @@ var httpURL = regexp.MustCompile(`^https?://`)
 
 // policy is a shared bluemonday policy that allows safe Markdown HTML while
 // stripping dangerous elements (script, iframe, object, embed, style, on*).
-//
-// Note: bluemonday operates on raw text, so HTML inside Markdown code blocks
-// (e.g. ```<script>```) will also be stripped. This is an acceptable trade-off
-// for defense-in-depth — the primary sanitization happens in the frontend via
-// rehype-sanitize which understands the Markdown AST.
 var policy *bluemonday.Policy
 
 func init() {
@@ -28,8 +25,47 @@ func init() {
 	policy.AllowAttrs("class").OnElements("code", "div", "span", "pre")
 }
 
+// fencedCodeBlock matches ``` or ~~~ fenced code blocks (with optional language tag).
+var fencedCodeBlock = regexp.MustCompile("(?m)^(```|~~~)[^\n]*\n[\\s\\S]*?\n(```|~~~)[ \t]*$")
+
+// inlineCode matches backtick-delimited inline code spans.
+// Ordered longest-delimiter-first so triple backticks match before doubles/singles.
+var inlineCode = regexp.MustCompile("```[^`]+```|``[^`]+``|`[^`]+`")
+
 // HTML sanitizes user-provided HTML/Markdown content, stripping dangerous
 // tags (script, iframe, object, embed, etc.) and event-handler attributes.
+//
+// Code blocks and inline code spans are preserved verbatim so that bluemonday
+// does not HTML-escape their contents (e.g. && → &amp;&amp;).
 func HTML(input string) string {
-	return policy.Sanitize(input)
+	// 1. Extract fenced code blocks, replacing with unique placeholders.
+	var blocks []string
+	placeholder := func(i int) string { return fmt.Sprintf("\x00CODEBLOCK_%d\x00", i) }
+	result := fencedCodeBlock.ReplaceAllStringFunc(input, func(m string) string {
+		idx := len(blocks)
+		blocks = append(blocks, m)
+		return placeholder(idx)
+	})
+
+	// 2. Extract inline code spans.
+	var inlines []string
+	inlinePH := func(i int) string { return fmt.Sprintf("\x00INLINE_%d\x00", i) }
+	result = inlineCode.ReplaceAllStringFunc(result, func(m string) string {
+		idx := len(inlines)
+		inlines = append(inlines, m)
+		return inlinePH(idx)
+	})
+
+	// 3. Sanitize the non-code portions.
+	result = policy.Sanitize(result)
+
+	// 4. Restore inline code spans, then fenced code blocks.
+	for i, code := range inlines {
+		result = strings.Replace(result, inlinePH(i), code, 1)
+	}
+	for i, block := range blocks {
+		result = strings.Replace(result, placeholder(i), block, 1)
+	}
+
+	return result
 }
diff --git a/server/internal/sanitize/html_test.go b/server/internal/sanitize/html_test.go
index 9745a97e4..90e1e153b 100644
--- a/server/internal/sanitize/html_test.go
+++ b/server/internal/sanitize/html_test.go
@@ -80,6 +80,52 @@ func TestHTML(t *testing.T) {
 			input: `<div data-type="fileCard" data-href="http://example.com/file.pdf" data-filename="file.pdf"></div>`,
 			want:  `<div data-type="fileCard" data-href="http://example.com/file.pdf" data-filename="file.pdf"></div>`,
 		},
+		// Code block preservation — entities must NOT be escaped inside code.
+		{
+			name:  "fenced code block preserves ampersands",
+			input: "```\na && b\n```",
+			want:  "```\na && b\n```",
+		},
+		{
+			name:  "fenced code block preserves angle brackets",
+			input: "```html\n<div class=\"x\">hello</div>\n```",
+			want:  "```html\n<div class=\"x\">hello</div>\n```",
+		},
+		{
+			name:  "inline code preserves ampersands",
+			input: "run `a && b` in shell",
+			want:  "run `a && b` in shell",
+		},
+		{
+			name:  "inline code preserves angle brackets",
+			input: "use `x < y && y > z`",
+			want:  "use `x < y && y > z`",
+		},
+		{
+			name:  "double backtick inline code preserved",
+			input: "use ``a && b`` here",
+			want:  "use ``a && b`` here",
+		},
+		{
+			name:  "script in fenced code block preserved",
+			input: "```\n<script>alert(1)</script>\n```",
+			want:  "```\n<script>alert(1)</script>\n```",
+		},
+		{
+			name:  "script outside code block still stripped",
+			input: "hello <script>alert(1)</script> world",
+			want:  "hello  world",
+		},
+		{
+			name:  "mixed code and non-code",
+			input: "text `a && b` more <script>x</script> end",
+			want:  "text `a && b` more  end",
+		},
+		{
+			name:  "tilde fenced code block preserves content",
+			input: "~~~\na && b\n~~~",
+			want:  "~~~\na && b\n~~~",
+		},
 	}
 
 	for _, tt := range tests {