lean-interact

LeanInteract

LeanInteract is a Python package designed to seamlessly interact with Lean 4 through the Lean REPL.

Key Features

• 🔗 Interactivity: Execute Lean code and files directly from Python.
• 🚀 Ease of Use: LeanInteract abstracts the complexities of Lean setup and interaction.
• 💻 Cross-platform: Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems.
• 🔧 Compatibility: Supports all Lean versions between v4.7.0-rc1 and v4.21.0-rc3.
  • We backport the latest features of Lean REPL to older versions of Lean.
• 📦 Temporary Projects: Easily instantiate temporary Lean environments.
  • Useful for experimenting with benchmarks depending on Mathlib like ProofNet# and MiniF2F.

Table of Contents

• Key Features
• Installation and Setup
• Script examples
• Usage
  • Basic example
  • Tactic mode
  • Custom Lean configuration
    • Specific Lean version
    • Existing Lean projects
    • Temporary project with dependencies
    • Fine-grained temporary project
• Available Queries
  • Command
  • FileCommand
  • ProofStep
  • Environment Pickling
  • ProofState Pickling
• Helper Commands
• Advanced options
  • LeanServer
  • Custom Lean REPL
• Similar tools
• Troubleshooting
• Contributing
• Citation
• License

Installation and Setup

You can install the LeanInteract package using the following command:

pip install lean-interact

Requirements:

• Python >= 3.10
• git
• Lean 4
  • Tip: use the cross-platform install-lean command from LeanInteract.
  • Your elan version should be at least 4.0.0 (elan --version).

Script examples

In the examples directory, you will find a few scripts demonstrating how to use LeanInteract.

• proof_generation_and_autoformalization.py: use DeepSeek-Prover-V1.5, Goedel-Prover, and other models on MiniF2F and ProofNet# benchmarks.
• beq_plus.py: run the autoformalization BEq+ metric on the ProofNetVerif benchmark.
• type_check.py: optimize type checking using environment states.

Usage

Full documentation is available here.

Basic example

The following code will use the default Lean version (latest available):

from lean_interact import LeanREPLConfig, LeanServer, Command

config = LeanREPLConfig(verbose=True) # download and build Lean REPL
server = LeanServer(config) # start Lean REPL
server.run(Command(cmd="theorem ex (n : Nat) : n = 5 → n = 5 := id"))

Output

CommandResponse(
  env=0,
  messages=[
    Message(start_pos=Pos(line=1, column=0),
    end_pos=Pos(line=1, column=42),
    data='Goals accomplished!',
    severity='info')
  ]
)

Iterate on the environment state:

server.run(Command(cmd="example (x : Nat) : x = 5 → x = 5 := by exact ex x", env=0))

Output

CommandResponse(
  env=1,
  messages=[
    Message(start_pos=Pos(line=1, column=0),
    end_pos=Pos(line=1, column=50),
    data='Goals accomplished!',
    severity='info')
  ]
)

See Available Queries for all available commands.

[!NOTE] The initial invocation of LeanREPLConfig might take some time as it downloads and builds Lean REPL. Future executions with identical parameters will be significantly quicker due to caching.

Tactic mode

[!WARNING] This feature is experimental in Lean REPL and may not work as expected: some valid proofs might be incorrectly rejected. Please report any issues you encounter here.

First, let's run a command to create a theorem with a sorry proof:

server.run(Command(cmd="theorem ex (n : Nat) : n = 5 → n = 5 := sorry"))

Output

CommandResponse(
  sorries=[
    Sorry(start_pos=Pos(line=1, column=40),
    end_pos=Pos(line=1, column=45),
    goal='n : Nat\n⊢ n = 5 → n = 5',
    proof_state=0)
  ],
  env=0,
  messages=[
    Message(start_pos=Pos(line=1, column=8),
    end_pos=Pos(line=1, column=10),
    data="declaration uses 'sorry'",
    severity='warning')
  ]
)

You can then iterate on the proof state by executing tactics:

from lean_interact import ProofStep

server.run(ProofStep(tactic="intro h", proof_state=0))

Output

ProofStepResponse(
  proof_state=1,
  goals=['n : Nat\nh : n = 5\n⊢ n = 5'],
  proof_status='Incomplete: open goals remain'
)

server.run(ProofStep(tactic="exact h", proof_state=1))

Output

ProofStepResponse(proof_state=2, goals=[], proof_status='Completed')

or by directly running the entire proof:

server.run(ProofStep(tactic="(\nintro h\nexact h)", proof_state=0))

Output

ProofStepResponse(proof_state=3, goals=[], proof_status='Completed')

Custom Lean configuration

Specific Lean version

config = LeanREPLConfig(lean_version="v4.7.0")

Existing Lean projects

config = LeanREPLConfig(project=LocalProject("path/to/your/project"))

or

config = LeanREPLConfig(project=GitProject("https://github.com/yangky11/lean4-example"))

You can then use run as usual:

from lean_interact import FileCommand

server = LeanServer(config)
server.run(FileCommand(path="file.lean"))

[!IMPORTANT] Ensure the project can be successfully built with lake build before using LeanInteract.

Temporary project with dependencies

from lean_interact import TempRequireProject

config = LeanREPLConfig(lean_version="v4.7.0", project=TempRequireProject([LeanRequire(
    name="mathlib",
    git="https://github.com/leanprover-community/mathlib4.git",
    rev="v4.7.0"
)]))

Mathlib being a frequent requirement, a shortcut is available:

config = LeanREPLConfig(lean_version="v4.7.0", project=TempRequireProject("mathlib"))

You can then use Mathlib as follows:

server = LeanServer(config)
server.run(Command(cmd="""import Mathlib
theorem ex_mathlib (x : ℝ) (y : ℚ) :
  ( Irrational x ) -> Irrational ( x + y ) := sorry"""))

Output

CommandResponse(
  env=0,
  sorries=[
    Sorry(end_pos=Pos(line=3, column=51),
    goal='x : ℝ\ny : ℚ\n⊢ Irrational x → Irrational (x + ↑y)',
    start_pos=Pos(line=3, column=46),
    proof_state=0)
  ],
  messages=[
    Message(end_pos=Pos(line=2, column=18),
    data="declaration uses 'sorry'",
    start_pos=Pos(line=2, column=8),
    severity='warning')
  ]
)

[!NOTE]

• Mathlib is a large library and may take some time to download and build.
• A separate cache is used for each unique set of dependencies.

Fine-grained temporary project

For more control over the temporary project, you can use TemporaryProject to specify the content of the lakefile (.lean format).

from lean_interact import TemporaryProject

config = LeanREPLConfig(lean_version="v4.18.0", project=TemporaryProject("""
import Lake
open Lake DSL

package "dummy" where
  version := v!"0.1.0"

@[default_target]
lean_exe "dummy" where
  root := `Main

require mathlib from git
  "https://github.com/leanprover-community/mathlib4.git" @ "v4.18.0"
"""))

Available Queries

LeanInteract supports various types of queries to interact with the Lean REPL. We briefly describe them in this section. You can check the file interface.py for more details.

Command

Execute Lean code directly:

from lean_interact import Command

# Execute a simple theorem
response = server.run(Command(cmd="theorem ex (n : Nat) : n = 5 → n = 5 := id"))

# Execute with options to get tactics information
response = server.run(Command(cmd="theorem ex (n : Nat) : n = 5 → n = 5 := by simp", all_tactics=True))

# Continue in the same environment
response = server.run(Command(cmd="#check ex", env=response.env))

FileCommand

Process Lean files:

from lean_interact import FileCommand

# Execute a Lean file
response = server.run(FileCommand(path="myfile.lean"))

# With options for more information
response = server.run(FileCommand(path="myfile.lean", root_goals=True))

ProofStep

Work with proofs step by step using tactics:

from lean_interact import ProofStep

# Apply a tactic to a proof state
response = server.run(ProofStep(proof_state=0, tactic="intro h"))

# Apply multiple tactics at once
response = server.run(ProofStep(proof_state=0, tactic="(\nintro h\nexact h)"))

Environment Pickling

Save and restore environment states:

from lean_interact import PickleEnvironment, UnpickleEnvironment

# Save an environment
server.run(PickleEnvironment(env=1, pickle_to="env_state.olean"))

# Restore an environment
server.run(UnpickleEnvironment(unpickle_env_from="env_state.olean"))

ProofState Pickling

Save and restore proof states:

from lean_interact import PickleProofState, UnpickleProofState

# Save a proof state
server.run(PickleProofState(proof_state=2, pickle_to="proof_state.olean"))

# Restore a proof state
server.run(UnpickleProofState(unpickle_proof_state_from="proof_state.olean", env=1))

Helper Commands

The following commands are installed with LeanInteract:

• install-lean: Installs Lean 4 version manager elan.
• clear-lean-cache: Removes all Lean REPL versions and temporary projects in the package cache. This can help resolve some issues. If it does, please open an issue.

Advanced options

LeanServer

Two versions of Lean servers are available:

• LeanServer: A wrapper around Lean REPL. Interact with it using the run method.
• AutoLeanServer: An experimental subclass of LeanServer automatically recovering from some crashes and timeouts. It also monitors memory usage to limit out of memory issues in multiprocessing contexts. Use the add_to_session_cache attribute available in the run method to prevent selected environment/proof states to be cleared.

[!TIP]

• To run multiple requests in parallel, we recommend using multiprocessing with one global LeanREPLConfig instance, and one AutoLeanServer instance per process.
• Make sure to instantiate LeanREPLConfig before starting the processes to avoid conflicts during Lean REPL's download and build.
• While AutoLeanServer can help prevent crashes, it is not a complete solution. If you encounter crashes, consider reducing the number of parallel processes or increasing the memory available to your system.

Custom Lean REPL

To use a forked Lean REPL project, specify the git repository using the repl_git parameter in the LeanREPLConfig and the target revision using the repl_rev parameter. For example:

config = LeanREPLConfig(repl_rev="v4.21.0-rc3", repl_git="https://github.com/leanprover-community/repl", verbose=True)

[!WARNING]

Custom REPL implementations may have interfaces that are incompatible with LeanInteract's standard commands. If you encounter incompatibility issues, you can use the run_dict method from LeanServer to communicate directly with the REPL using the raw JSON protocol:

# Using run_dict instead of the standard commands
result = server.run_dict({"cmd": "your_command_here"})

For assistance, feel free to contact us.

Similar tools

We recommend checking out these tools:

• PyPantograph: Based on Pantograph, offering more options for proof interactions than Lean REPL.
• LeanDojo: Parses Lean projects to create datasets and interact with proof states.
• itp-interface: A Python interface for interacting and extracting data from Lean 4 and Coq.
• leanclient: Interact with the Lean LSP server.

LeanInteract is inspired by pylean and lean4_jupyter.

Troubleshooting

Common issues and their solutions:

• Out of memory errors: Reduce parallel processing or increase system memory. Alternatively, use AutoLeanServer with conservative memory settings

• Timeout errors: Currently, LeanServer simply stops the Lean REPL if a command times out. Use AutoLeanServer for automatic recovery.

• Long waiting times during first run: This is expected as Lean REPL is being downloaded and built. Additionally, if you are importing Mathlib it will take even more time. Subsequent runs will be much faster.

• Failed during Lean project setup: Command '['lake', 'update']' returned non-zero exit status 1.: This error may occur if your elan version is outdated (i.e. < 4.0.0). To resolve this, update elan using elan self update or read the documentation here.

• (Windows) Path too long error: Windows has a maximum path length limitation of 260 characters. If you get an error similar to the following one, you are likely affected by this problem:

  error: external command 'git' exited with code 128
  ERROR    Failed during Lean project setup: Command '['lake', 'update']' returned non-zero exit status 1.
  

  To resolve this, you can enable long paths in Windows 10 and later versions. For more information, refer to the Microsoft documentation. Alternatively, run the following command in a terminal with administrator privileges:

  New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem" -Name LongPathsEnabled -Value 1 -PropertyType DWord -Force
  git config --system core.longpaths true
  

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Here's how you can help:

• Fork the repository
• Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature-name
• Commit your changes: git commit -am 'Add new feature'
• Push to the branch: git push origin feature-name
• Submit a pull request

Citation

If you use LeanInteract in your research, please cite it as follows:

@software{leaninteract,
  author = {Poiroux, Auguste and Kuncak, Viktor and Bosselut, Antoine},
  title = {LeanInteract: A Python Interface for Lean 4},
  url = {https://github.com/augustepoiroux/LeanInteract},
  year = {2025}
}

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.