diff --git a/debug-edge-parsing.js b/debug-edge-parsing.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..88799100e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debug-edge-parsing.js
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+import { FlowDB } from './packages/mermaid/src/diagrams/flowchart/flowDb.ts';
+import flow from './packages/mermaid/src/diagrams/flowchart/parser/flowParserAdapter.ts';
+
+// Set up the test environment
+flow.yy = new FlowDB();
+flow.yy.clear();
+
+console.log('=== Testing basic edge parsing ===');
+console.log('Input: "graph TD;A-->B;"');
+
+try {
+  const result = flow.parse('graph TD;A-->B;');
+  console.log('Parse result:', result);
+
+  const vertices = flow.yy.getVertices();
+  const edges = flow.yy.getEdges();
+
+  console.log('Vertices:', vertices);
+  console.log('Vertices size:', vertices.size);
+  console.log('Vertices keys:', Array.from(vertices.keys()));
+
+  console.log('Edges:', edges);
+  console.log('Edges length:', edges.length);
+
+  // Check specific vertices
+  console.log('Vertex A:', vertices.get('A'));
+  console.log('Vertex B:', vertices.get('B'));
+} catch (error) {
+  console.error('Parse error:', error);
+  console.error('Error stack:', error.stack);
+}
diff --git a/packages/mermaid/src/diagrams/flowchart/parser/flowLexer.ts b/packages/mermaid/src/diagrams/flowchart/parser/flowLexer.ts
index 491d34f16..561f532a3 100644
--- a/packages/mermaid/src/diagrams/flowchart/parser/flowLexer.ts
+++ b/packages/mermaid/src/diagrams/flowchart/parser/flowLexer.ts
@@ -59,8 +59,7 @@ const EOF = createToken({
 // Complex pattern to handle all edge cases including punctuation at start/end
 const NODE_STRING = createToken({
   name: 'NODE_STRING',
-  pattern:
-    /\\\w+|\w+\\|&[\w!"#$%&'*+,./:?\\`]+[\w!"#$%&'*+,./:?\\`-]*|-[\w!"#$%&'*+,./:?\\`]+[\w!"#$%&'*+,./:?\\`-]*|[<>^v][\w!"#$%&'*+,./:?\\`]+[\w!"#$%&'*+,./:?\\`-]*|:[\w!"#$%&'*+,./:?\\`]+[\w!"#$%&'*+,./:?\\`-]*|,[\w!"#$%&'*+,./:?\\`]+[\w!"#$%&'*+,./:?\\`-]*|[\w!"#$%&'*+,./:?\\`](?:[\w!"#$%&'*+,./:?\\`]|-(?![.=-])|\.(?!-))*[\w!"#$%&'*+,./:?\\`-]|[\w!"#$%&'*+,./:?\\`]|&|-|\\|\//,
+  pattern: /[A-Za-z0-9_]+/,
 });
 
 // ============================================================================
@@ -207,42 +206,36 @@ const ShapeDataStart = createToken({
 const LINK = createToken({
   name: 'LINK',
   pattern: /[<ox]?--+[>ox-]/,
-  longer_alt: NODE_STRING,
 });
 
 const START_LINK = createToken({
   name: 'START_LINK',
   pattern: /[<ox]?--/,
   push_mode: 'edgeText_mode',
-  longer_alt: NODE_STRING,
 });
 
 // Regular thick links without text
 const THICK_LINK = createToken({
   name: 'THICK_LINK',
   pattern: /[<ox]?==+[=>ox-]?/,
-  longer_alt: NODE_STRING,
 });
 
 const START_THICK_LINK = createToken({
   name: 'START_THICK_LINK',
   pattern: /[<ox]?==/,
   push_mode: 'thickEdgeText_mode',
-  longer_alt: NODE_STRING,
 });
 
 // Regular dotted links without text
 const DOTTED_LINK = createToken({
   name: 'DOTTED_LINK',
   pattern: /[<ox]?-?\.+-[>ox-]?/,
-  longer_alt: NODE_STRING,
 });
 
 const START_DOTTED_LINK = createToken({
   name: 'START_DOTTED_LINK',
   pattern: /[<ox]?-\./,
   push_mode: 'dottedEdgeText_mode',
-  longer_alt: NODE_STRING,
 });
 
 // ============================================================================
@@ -295,13 +288,11 @@ const DiamondStart = createToken({
 const Colon = createToken({
   name: 'Colon',
   pattern: /:/,
-  longer_alt: NODE_STRING,
 });
 
 const Comma = createToken({
   name: 'Comma',
   pattern: /,/,
-  longer_alt: NODE_STRING,
 });
 
 const Pipe = createToken({
@@ -319,7 +310,6 @@ const Ampersand = createToken({
 const Minus = createToken({
   name: 'Minus',
   pattern: /-/,
-  longer_alt: NODE_STRING,
 });
 
 // Additional special character tokens for node IDs - currently unused but kept for future reference
@@ -578,6 +568,9 @@ const multiModeLexerDefinition = {
       // Basic punctuation (must come before NODE_STRING for proper tokenization)
       Pipe,
       Ampersand,
+      Minus,
+      Colon,
+      Comma,
 
       // Node strings and numbers (must come after punctuation)
       NODE_STRING,
diff --git a/simple-arrow-test.js b/simple-arrow-test.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..01709b07d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/simple-arrow-test.js
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+import { FlowDB } from './packages/mermaid/src/diagrams/flowchart/flowDb.ts';
+import flow from './packages/mermaid/src/diagrams/flowchart/parser/flowParserAdapter.ts';
+
+// Set up the test environment
+flow.yy = new FlowDB();
+flow.yy.clear();
+
+console.log('=== Testing simple arrow ===');
+console.log('Input: "-->"');
+
+try {
+  const result = flow.parse('-->');
+  console.log('Parse result:', result);
+} catch (error) {
+  console.error('Parse error:', error.message);
+}
diff --git a/test-lexer.mjs b/test-lexer.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6279be6b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test-lexer.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+// Test the actual lexer to see what tokens are generated
+import { FlowchartLexer } from './packages/mermaid/src/diagrams/flowchart/parser/flowLexer.ts';
+
+const testInputs = ['A', 'A-->B', 'graph TD;A-->B;', '-->', 'A-', '>B'];
+
+console.log('Testing actual lexer:');
+testInputs.forEach((input) => {
+  console.log(`\nInput: "${input}"`);
+  try {
+    const result = FlowchartLexer.tokenize(input);
+    if (result.errors.length > 0) {
+      console.log('Errors:', result.errors);
+    }
+    console.log(
+      'Tokens:',
+      result.tokens.map((t) => [t.image, t.tokenType.name])
+    );
+  } catch (error) {
+    console.log('Error:', error.message);
+  }
+});