diff --git a/src/channels/discord-outbound.ts b/src/channels/discord-outbound.ts
index cd6ae03..4752ba4 100644
--- a/src/channels/discord-outbound.ts
+++ b/src/channels/discord-outbound.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import path from 'path';
 
 import { normalizeAgentOutput } from '../agent-protocol.js';
+import { neutralizeStrayMarkdown, sanitizeForOutbound } from '../router.js';
 import type { OutboundAttachment } from '../types.js';
 
 const LOCAL_MARKDOWN_LINK_RE = /\[[^\]\n]*\]\((\/[^)\n]+)\)/g;
@@ -46,7 +47,17 @@ export function prepareDiscordOutbound(
   const structuredOutput =
     normalized.output?.visibility === 'public' ? normalized.output : null;
   const outboundText = structuredOutput?.text ?? normalized.result ?? text;
-  const cleanText = sanitizeLocalMarkdownLinks(outboundText);
+  // Redact/strip before escaping so secret patterns (which contain `_`) still
+  // match, then escape stray Discord markdown in free-form agent prose so
+  // emphasis markers (**bold**, ~~strike~~, …) render literally. Author-
+  // controlled structured envelopes are intentional, so their text is left
+  // untouched. Escaping runs before sanitizeLocalMarkdownLinks so the inline
+  // code it deliberately produces is preserved.
+  const safeText = sanitizeForOutbound(outboundText);
+  const renderedText = structuredOutput
+    ? safeText
+    : neutralizeStrayMarkdown(safeText);
+  const cleanText = sanitizeLocalMarkdownLinks(renderedText);
   const attachments =
     optionAttachments && optionAttachments.length > 0
       ? optionAttachments
diff --git a/src/channels/discord.ts b/src/channels/discord.ts
index 8607998..54fc5b1 100644
--- a/src/channels/discord.ts
+++ b/src/channels/discord.ts
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ import { CACHE_DIR } from '../config.js';
 import { getEnv } from '../env.js';
 import { logger } from '../logger.js';
 import { validateOutboundAttachments } from '../outbound-attachments.js';
-import { formatOutbound } from '../router.js';
+import { sanitizeForOutbound } from '../router.js';
 import { hasReviewerLease } from '../service-routing.js';
 import type {
   DeleteRecentMessagesByContentOptions,
@@ -528,7 +528,9 @@ export class DiscordChannel implements Channel {
       for (const [name, id] of Object.entries(mentionMap)) {
         cleaned = cleaned.replace(new RegExp(`@${name}`, 'g'), `<@${id}>`);
       }
-      cleaned = formatOutbound(cleaned);
+      // Markdown escaping already happened in prepareDiscordOutbound (before
+      // the deliberate link→inline-code step). Here we only strip/redact.
+      cleaned = sanitizeForOutbound(cleaned);
 
       // Discord has a 2000 character limit per message and 10 attachments per message
       const MAX_LENGTH = 2000;