Ordeal

ordeal (meaning "verdict / judgment") is a specialized, certificate-checked QF_BV SMT solver for the PulseEngine toolchain. It exists to replace the Z3 static-link build pain that loom (verified WASM optimizer) and synth (verified WASM→ARM codegen) carry today — grounding: loom issue #246.

Design in one paragraph

An untrusted solver emits a machine-checkable LRAT UNSAT certificate; a small formally-verified checker validates it. Only the checker is trusted (the CompCert certifying-algorithm pattern; blueprint = Lean 4 bv_decide, OOPSLA 2025). Z3 is demoted to a differential oracle and benchmark rival, not the production engine. The pipeline is: term graph → bit-blast → AIG → CNF (Tseitin) → SAT → LRAT → verified checker.

Modules

• [term] — the closed QF_BV fragment (the exact loom #246 op set).
• [lowering] — blessed derived-op constructors (bvnot, bvneg, bvrotl, bvurem, bvsdiv, bvsrem) built over the closed core, for the ops synth-verify emits but the fragment omits (DES-018).
• [solver] — the one-shot check-sat interface and result types.
• [eval] — the concrete evaluator (executable SMT-LIB semantics; the test oracle for every blasting rule and the SAT-model self-check).
• [aig] — the And-Inverter Graph arena (structural hashing, folding).
• [blast] — per-op-family bit-blasting rules (term → AIG).
• [cnf] — CNF types and the Tseitin encoder (AIG → CNF).
• [sat] — the pure-Rust CDCL core (primary engine on every target).
• [lrat] — LRAT certificate emission from the CDCL proof trace; the ordeal-lrat crate (the sole trusted component) validates it before any Unsat is returned.
• [oracle] — the Z3 differential oracle (behind the oracle feature).
• [smtlib] — a minimal QF_BV SMT-LIB2 reader for the standalone CLI / differential harness (not the production interface; that stays the API).