# Going back to previous solutions?

**URL:** <https://alloytools.discourse.group/t/going-back-to-previous-solutions/515>\
**Category:** Questions\
**Created:** [February 26, 2025, 9:21am UTC](https://alloytools.discourse.group/t/going-back-to-previous-solutions/515 "2025-02-26T09:21:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Alejandro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@Alejandro](https://alloytools.discourse.group/u/Alejandro)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 9:21am UTC](https://alloytools.discourse.group/t/going-back-to-previous-solutions/515/1 "2025-02-26T09:21:42Z")

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When I press the Execute button, I get a solution, and the New button generates next ones one by one. Now, I have a couple of questions.

1. Is it possible to go to the previous solutions using the GUI? It seems currently it’s not.

I could use the Java API for this and save all the solutions I’ve had so far in a jupyter notebook, for example. While this is possible, now I wonder:

1. Is being unable to go to previous solutions a problem in practice?

I’m new to Alloy and haven’t figured out the right workflow yet. But to me, this puts pressure on me to read solutions too carefully. In my mind it just seems that going back and forth would be helpful.

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**Author:** ![grayswandyr](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/alloytools.discourse.group/grayswandyr/32/17_2.png) [@grayswandyr](https://alloytools.discourse.group/u/grayswandyr)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 11:56am UTC](https://alloytools.discourse.group/t/going-back-to-previous-solutions/515/2 "2025-02-26T11:56:13Z")

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> [@Alejandro](#):
>
> Is it possible to go to the previous solutions using the GUI? It seems currently it’s not.

It’s indeed impossible in the GUI.

> [@Alejandro](#):
>
> I could use the Java API for this and save all the solutions I’ve had so far in a jupyter notebook, for example.

Remark Alloy 6.2 features a new CLI that allows to list solutions IIRC.

> [@Alejandro](#):
>
> Is being unable to go to previous solutions a problem in practice?

I think it depends one one’s problem, and workflow too. I don’t suffer much from this but that might “survivor bias”. But when your model is complex, navigating solutions doesn’t seem that relevant to me. I tend more to rely on `run`s with a detailed body, and on the Evaluator (embedded in the Visualizer) which is a very nice tool to understand an instance.