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Understanding conversion loss
Conversion preserves the structure both formats can represent and reports what the target format cannot encode.
Formats have different vocabularies
Coral carries GraphIR metadata, nested objects, settings, exact geometry, constraints, routes, and typed properties. Mermaid, DOT, and PlantUML each have different diagram families and styling or layout concepts.
Loss is directional
A Mermaid flowchart can become a useful Coral diagram without carrying every style directive. Converting that result back does not reconstruct discarded syntax, comments, ordering, or unsupported metadata.
Switching notation is also lossy
Notation mapping can collapse several source node types into one installed symbol. A fallback symbol keeps the object visible, but switching back cannot infer the original distinction.
WARNING
Treat conversion and notation switching as new representations. Save the original document before accepting a lossy result.