Rocq
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 8 proof assistants by recommenders
Free proof assistant for formally verifying programs and math, with a rigorous dependently typed design. Critics say it is mostly academic and Lean has overtaken it.
Free proof assistant for formally verifying programs and math, with a rigorous dependently typed design. Critics say it is mostly academic and Lean has overtaken it.
28 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 25
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 89%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 25 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 8.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Strong tool for formal verification
“Lean doesn’t have a monopoly on verification languages. Dafney, Rocq, Why3, ATS, Agda, Idris… these all can do it too.”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “When AI Writes the Software, Who Verifies It?” “interactive proof assistants like Lean or Rocq will help to mitigate at least this issue”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Mathematics is hard for mathematicians to understand too” “multiple startups that have had some pretty impressive performance with Lean and Rocq”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “Which programming languages are most token-efficient?” - Comment from 20 Aug 2026 in “The Case Against Formal Verification, 50 Years Later”
- Comment from 7 Jan 2026 in “Formal Methods Only Solve Half My Problems”
Rigorous dependently typed design
“look into Rocq (which uses CoIC, like Lean, but is more rigorous about it)”
Comment from 7 Feb 2026 in “First Proof” “Rocq (dependently typed), which also has a great track record”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 in “Why don't you use dependent types?” Checks AI-generated code
“interactive proof assistants like Lean or Rocq will help to mitigate at least this issue”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Mathematics is hard for mathematicians to understand too” “we've generated millions of lines of Lean 4, TLA+, and Rocq”
Comment from 31 Oct 2026 in “AI, Lean, and the Future of Formal Verification, with Lean Creator Leo de Moura”
Other proof assistants people recommend
The four most recommended other proof assistants, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 8 proof assistants, rankedWhat people said
24 of the 30 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“more reasonable but still is mostly an academic project”
“Even Rocq (formerly Coq) can compile down to several functional languages”
“we've generated millions of lines of Lean 4, TLA+, and Rocq”
“Extremely powerful to be able to have an agent open a PR with some experiments”
“Rocq has had similar issues with AI finding soundness bugs, particularly in module code last I checked.”
“My very brief attempts at Isabelle / RCoq feel more natural.”
“my own experience proving small projects correct using Lean and Rocq”
“other languages such as Agda, Idris, and Rocq that would be fantastic replacements to Lean”
“why I don't give in to the hype and switch to Lean”
“non-slop Lean/Agda/Rocq/... formalizations are amazing for understanding proofs”
“a genuinely interesting and important piece of software”
“LEAN to have made it almost completely obsolete”
“it isn't uncommon to have lean or rocq proofs for everything only to later find”
“I'm a diehard fan of Rocq”
“Lean doesn’t have a monopoly on verification languages. Dafney, Rocq, Why3, ATS, Agda, Idris… these all can do it too.”
“look into Rocq (which uses CoIC, like Lean, but is more rigorous about it)”
“multiple startups that have had some pretty impressive performance with Lean and Rocq”
“my fiber install is next week and I'm hotspotting off a phone. So that'll need to wait”
“Tools like Lean and Rocq can do arbitrary math”
“If you push this idea further: use Lean, Agda or Rocq.”
“interactive proof assistants like Lean or Rocq will help to mitigate at least this issue”
“Rocq is an excellent example of something OCaml was designed for”
“That's what the language was built for initialy: developing the Rocq prover.”
“Rocq (dependently typed), which also has a great track record”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.