CVC4CVC5

CVC4 and its successor CVC5 are open-source SMT (satisfiability modulo theories) solvers designed for automated reasoning in software and hardware verification, formal methods, and related fields. CVC4 is the earlier solver in the family, developed as a general-purpose engine capable of deciding logical formulas over a broad range of theories. It accepts input in the SMT-LIB 2 standard and provides interfaces for embedding the solver into other tools via a C++ API and bindings to additional programming languages.

CVC4 supports a wide set of theories and functionality, including uninterpreted sorts and functions, arrays, datatypes, linear and nonlinear arithmetic, bit-vectors, strings, and quantifiers. It implements various decision procedures and model construction techniques, and it is designed to be extensible for experimentation and research.

CVC5 is the major rewrite and successor to CVC4, created to improve maintainability, performance, and feature coverage. While retaining compatibility with SMT-LIB 2 and many core capabilities of its predecessor, CVC5 introduces a more modular architecture, enhanced support for datatypes and advanced theory combination, and ongoing improvements in quantifier handling and solver strategies. The project targets broad applicability in formal verification, software analysis, and academic research.

Both solvers are used by researchers and practitioners to discharge verification conditions, check satisfiability of logical formulas, and generate counterexamples or models where possible. They are actively developed with ongoing contributions from a community of researchers and engineers and are available as open-source projects with releases and documentation on public repositories.