Edit Mode

Experimental. Edit mode is under active development — behavior and export format may change.

The idea

Because CnD rules are declarative, the same rules that describe how a structure should appear can also dictate how it should take shape during construction. Every CnD rule tells us about valid edits: what may be added, how it should appear, where it may go, and how existing parts should adjust.

Edit mode turns this inside out. Instead of reading a solver-produced instance, you build one: add atoms, set fields, connect relations — and the .cnd spec continuously governs layout, styling, and structural validity as you go. The spec isn't just a renderer; it's the editor's rulebook.

How to access

Click the EditView tab in the main sidebar. The pane header shows an "Experimental feature" banner to remind you the feature is still stabilizing.

What you can do

• Build or modify an instance. Atoms and fields are individually editable; as you edit, the active .cnd spec re-applies constraints and directives so the visual stays consistent with the rules.
• Load from Instance. The "Load from Instance" button hydrates the editor with the current solver-produced instance — a starting point for a manual edit, or a way to revert after changes.
• Export as inst. The "Export as inst" button serializes the current editor state and copies it to your clipboard. Paste the result directly into a Forge or Alloy model as an instance definition.

Validation

On export, the edited instance is run through structural validation against the original instance's schema. Wrong atom types, missing required fields, or arity mismatches surface as error/warning banners in the header. The clipboard still receives the export so you can fix the destination in context, but the banner tells you what to look for.

Feature interaction

The same sidebar controls that apply in Graph view apply here:

• Projections — slice the edited instance along a sig axis.
• Temporal mode — navigate between states of a trace; edits apply to the currently selected state.
• Layout — your .cnd spec drives layout inside the editor just as it does in Graph view, and governs what edits are structurally valid.