Proof assistant
In computer science and mathematical logic, a proof assistant or interactive theorem prover is a software tool to assist with the development of formal proofs by human–machine collaboration. This involves some sort of interactive proof editor, or other interface, with which a human can guide the search for proofs, the details of which are stored in, and some steps provided by, a computer. Many proof assistants are built around a small trusted kernel that checks each inference step, while higher-level proof procedures help construct proofs. This architecture is characteristic of the LCF approach, which influenced several later systems.
A recent effort within this field is making these tools use artificial intelligence to automate the formalization of ordinary mathematics.
History
, which was developed by Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn starting in 1967, is often considered the first proof checker and the first system to utilize the Curry–Howard correspondence between programs and proofs. In the 1970s, the LCF family introduced the idea of a small trusted core for proof checking combined with user-programmable proof procedures, a design that later influenced systems such as HOL and Isabelle.System comparison
- ACL2 – a programming language, a first-order logical theory, and a theorem prover in the Boyer–Moore tradition.
- Rocq – Allows the expression of mathematical assertions, mechanically checks proofs of these assertions, helps to find formal proofs, and extracts a certified program from the constructive proof of its formal specification.
- HOL theorem provers – A family of tools ultimately derived from the LCF theorem prover. In these systems the logical core is a library of their programming language. Theorems represent new elements of the language and can only be introduced via "strategies" which guarantee logical correctness. Strategy composition gives users the ability to produce significant proofs with relatively few interactions with the system. Members of the family include:
- *HOL4 – The "primary descendant", still under active development. Support for both Moscow ML and Poly/ML. Has a BSD-style license.
- *HOL Light – A thriving "minimalist fork". OCaml based.
- *ProofPower – Went proprietary, then returned to open source. Based on Standard ML.
- IMPS, An Interactive Mathematical Proof System.
- Isabelle is an interactive theorem prover, successor of HOL. The main code-base is BSD-licensed, but the Isabelle distribution bundles many add-on tools with different licenses.
- Jape – Java based.
- Lean
- LEGO
- Matita – A light system based on the Calculus of Inductive Constructions.
- MINLOG – A proof assistant based on first-order minimal logic.
- Mizar – A proof assistant based on first-order logic, in a natural deduction style, and Tarski–Grothendieck set theory.
- PhoX – A proof assistant based on higher-order logic which is eXtensible.
- Prototype Verification System – a proof language and system based on higher-order logic.
- Theorem Proving System and ETPS – Interactive theorem provers also based on simply typed lambda calculus, but based on an independent formulation of the logical theory and independent implementation.
User interfaces
A popular front-end for proof assistants is the Emacs-based Proof General, developed at the University of Edinburgh.Rocq includes RocqIDE, which is based on OCaml/Gtk. Isabelle includes Isabelle/jEdit, which is based on jEdit and the Isabelle/Scala infrastructure for document-oriented proof processing. More recently, Visual Studio Code extensions have been developed for Rocq, Isabelle by Makarius Wenzel, and for Lean 4 by the leanprover developers.
Formalization extent
Freek Wiedijk has been keeping a ranking of proof assistants by the amount of formalized theorems out of a list of 100 well-known theorems. As of September 2025, only six systems have formalized proofs of more than 70% of the theorems, namely Isabelle, HOL Light, Lean, Rocq, Metamath and Mizar.Notable formalized proofs
The following is a list of notable proofs that have been formalized within proof assistants.| Theorem | Proof assistant | Year |
| Four color theorem | Rocq | 2005 |
| Feit–Thompson theorem | Rocq | 2012 |
| Fundamental group of the circle | Rocq | 2013 |
| Erdős–Graham problem | Lean | 2022 |
| Polynomial Freiman-Ruzsa conjecture over | Lean | 2023 |
| BB(5) = 47,176,870 | Rocq | 2024 |