From ba8d65d780610b084cc5895c136ff5ed0067d3c7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: "Abdullah M. Nazif" <abdullahnajif5@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 2026 18:10:49 +0800
Subject: [PATCH] fix(cli): retain WebVTT timestamps before cue settings

---
 packages/cli/src/whisper/normalize.test.ts | 18 ++++++++++++++++++
 packages/cli/src/whisper/normalize.ts      |  5 +++--
 2 files changed, 21 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/packages/cli/src/whisper/normalize.test.ts b/packages/cli/src/whisper/normalize.test.ts
index 969bbff3b0a..7aa187fc800 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/whisper/normalize.test.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/whisper/normalize.test.ts
@@ -83,6 +83,24 @@ describe("detectFormat", () => {
 });
 
 describe("loadTranscript", () => {
+  it.each([
+    ["00:00:01.000", "00:00:03.500", "align:start"],
+    ["00:01.000", "00:03.500", "align:start"],
+    ["00:00:01.000", "00:00:03.500", "line:90% position:50%,center size:80% align:center"],
+    ["00:01.000", "00:03.500", "\tvertical:rl\tline:0"],
+    ["00:00:01.000", "00:00:03.500", "region:captions"],
+  ])("retains VTT end time before cue settings: %s --> %s %s", (start, end, settings) => {
+    const source = `WEBVTT\n\nfirst\n${start} --> ${end} ${settings}\nFirst phrase\n\nsecond\n00:04.000 --> 00:06.000\nSecond phrase\n`;
+    const { words } = loadTranscript(tmpFile("settings.vtt", source));
+    expect(words).toEqual([
+      { text: "First phrase", start: 1, end: 3.5, id: "w0" },
+      { text: "Second phrase", start: 4, end: 6, id: "w1" },
+    ]);
+    expect(formatSrt(words, { preGrouped: true })).toBe(
+      "1\n00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:03,500\nFirst phrase\n\n2\n00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:06,000\nSecond phrase\n",
+    );
+  });
+
   it("reads an empty word list as a transcript with no words", () => {
     expect(loadTranscript(tmpFile("transcript.json", "[]"))).toEqual({
       words: [],
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/whisper/normalize.ts b/packages/cli/src/whisper/normalize.ts
index 6683d634af2..9ddbc9ebbe7 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/whisper/normalize.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/whisper/normalize.ts
@@ -266,8 +266,9 @@ function parseSrtTimestamp(ts: string): number {
 
 /** Parse VTT timestamp: 00:01:23.456 or 01:23.456 → seconds */
 function parseVttTimestamp(ts: string): number {
-  const parts = ts.split(":");
-  if (parts.length === 3) return parseSrtTimestamp(ts);
+  const timestamp = ts.split(/[ \t]+/, 1)[0] ?? "";
+  const parts = timestamp.split(":");
+  if (parts.length === 3) return parseSrtTimestamp(timestamp);
   // MM:SS.mmm
   if (parts.length === 2) {
     const [min, secMs] = parts;