LLM-Assisted Bi-Approximate CHC Solving

Overview & Synopsis

Constrained Horn clause (CHC) solvers often struggle to discover deep counterexamples whose derivations may require extensive rule unfolding. Although large language models (LLMs) can propose long-range symbolic relations, prior work on formally checked LLM-assisted verification has mainly focused on generating inductive invariants and concrete traces. We exploit this broader capability through Derivation Power Under-approximations (DPUs). Each DPU is a solver-certified under-approximation of the relation induced by a multi-step CHC derivation. An LLM proposes each DPU with symbolic intermediate-state witnesses that enable SMT validation without introducing additional quantifiers. Validated DPUs can be composed and reused soundly. Building on this mechanism, our LLM-assisted framework HornCraft combines invariant generation for over-approximation with DPU generation for under-approximation in CHC solving. On 260 linear and nonlinear integer-arithmetic CHC-COMP benchmarks left unresolved by a 30-minute Spacer run, HornCraft returns certified verdicts for 228 instances. It certifies 42 instances as unsafe, compared with 22 when DPU construction and reuse are disabled.