Visual Editor strips cross-reference ID from inline table caption

[mcanouil]

Bug description

Switching a .qmd from source to the Visual Editor (and back) strips the cross-reference ID from a table caption written in the inline form : Caption {#tbl-one}.
After the round-trip the caption becomes : Caption and @tbl-one no longer resolves.

The equivalent div form ::: {#tbl-two} ... ::: is preserved, so the bug is specific to the inline caption attribute syntax.

Originally reported in quarto-dev/quarto-cli#14514.

Steps to reproduce

1. Create issue.qmd:

   ---
   title: About
   format: html
   ---
   
   @tbl-one and @tbl-two
   
   | A | B | C |
   |---|---|---|
   | 1 | 2 | 3 |
   
   : Caption {#tbl-one}
   
   ::: {#tbl-two}
   
   | A | B | C |
   |---|---|---|
   | 1 | 2 | 3 |
   
   Caption
   
   :::

2. Open in the Visual Editor, make any edit (or just toggle and save).

3. Switch back to source.

Actual behavior

The {#tbl-one} attribute is removed from the caption:

| A   | B   | C   |
|-----|-----|-----|
| 1   | 2   | 3   |

: Caption

@tbl-one renders as ?@tbl-one and the cross-reference is broken.
The {#tbl-two} div form survives the round-trip unchanged.

Expected behavior

The Visual Editor should preserve {#tbl-one} on the table caption across round-trips, matching its behaviour for div-wrapped tables.

Your environment

• IDE: RStudio 2026.04.0 Build 526 (per discussion How do I cross reference a table in the visual editor of R studio? quarto-cli#14514); also reproducible in VSCode / Positron Visual Editor.
• OS: Windows 11 (reporter); reproducible on macOS.

[juliasilge]

We've also got this tracked at posit-dev/positron#13204.

[mcanouil]

Workaround and in general in Quarto, the div syntax is the most consistent one and probably the syntax that should be recommended even if a bit more verbose.

[cscheid]

I wouldn't change any recommendations while we have the Quarto 2 work in flight. This sort of thing will be improved (and I continually thank you all for the patience...)