JaCoP offers methods for finding a single solution, all solutions and a solution that minimizes a given cost function. These methods are used together with methods defining variable selection and assignment of a selected value to variable. Both complete search methods and heuristic search methods can be defined in JaCoP.
JaCoP offers powerful methods for search modification, called search plug-ins. Search plug-ins can be used both for collecting information about search as well as for changing search behaviour. For more information on search plug-ins see section 6.2.