Handlebars helper to replicate the functionality of Rails' simple_format view helper. Wraps everything in a paragraph and corrects newlines and carriage returns. Ignores all other HTML.

simpleFormat.js

Handlebars.registerHelper 'simple_format', (text) ->
  carriage_returns = /\r\n?/g
  paragraphs = /\n\n+/g
  newline = /([^\n]\n)(?=[^\n])/g

  text = text.replace(carriage_returns, "\n") # \r\n and \r -> \n
  text = text.replace(paragraphs, "</p>\n\n<p>") # 2+ newline  -> paragraph
  text = text.replace(newline, "$1<br/>") # 1 newline   -> br
  text = "<p>" + text + "</p>";

  new Handlebars.SafeString text

Saw this while googling for the exact same thing. Hope you're doing well, man!