POPL 2026
Sun 11 - Sat 17 January 2026 Rennes, France
Fri 16 Jan 2026 14:50 - 15:15 at Réfectoire - Proof Assistants 2 Chair(s): Matthieu Sozeau

Proof assistants based on dependent type theory such as Agda, Lean and Rocq identify objects up to computation during proof checking. This takes away some of the proof burden from the user and even provides a way to get very efficient automation. Recently, Agda and Rocq have been extended to support user-defined computation. While they already prove very useful, user-defined computation rules are global: once they are added, they are here to stay. Importing a development that makes use of those rules then means relying on them, whether we want it or not, which can lead to unwanted incompatibilities. We design LRTT, a type theory with support for local abstraction over user-defined computation rules. This takes the form of a prenex quantification at the definition level. This quantification is supplemented with the possibility to provide one or several instantiations that verify the equations definitionally. We show that a procedure inlining definitions abstracting over definitional equality is possible, in the style of monomorphisation or of C++ templates. In the process we get a conservativity result over more conventional Martin-Löf type theories. There are several benefits to such a system. First, it provides encapsulation for user-defined computation rules, which is important to avoid unwanted bad interactions and limits the scope in which invariants of type theory (such as termination, confluence, type preservation and consistency) are broken. Second, abstraction lets users factorise code that crucially relies on definitional equality, as well as hide implementation details that are irrelevant in some settings. Finally, it gives a way to encode certain features without paying the price of the encoding. We showcase such examples in a prototype implementation as an extension of the Rocq Prover. Additionally, all the results in this have been formalised in Rocq.

Fri 16 Jan

Displayed time zone: Brussels, Copenhagen, Madrid, Paris change

14:00 - 15:40
Proof Assistants 2POPL at Réfectoire
Chair(s): Matthieu Sozeau Inria
14:00
25m
Talk
AdapTT: Functoriality for Dependent Type Casts
POPL
Arthur Adjedj ENS Paris Saclay, Université Paris-Saclay, Meven Lennon-Bertrand Inria – Université Paris Cité, Thibaut Benjamin Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, ENS Paris-Saclay, LMF, Kenji Maillard Inria
DOI
14:25
25m
Talk
Algorithmic Conversion with Surjective Pairing: A Syntactic and Untyped Approach
POPL
Yiyun Liu University of Pennsylvania, Stephanie Weirich University of Pennsylvania
DOI
14:50
25m
Talk
Encode the Cake and Eat It Too: Controlling Computation in Type Theory, LocallyDistinguished Paper
POPL
Yann Leray Nantes Université; Inria, Théo Winterhalter INRIA
DOI
15:15
25m
Talk
Normalisation for First-Class Universe LevelsDistinguished PaperRemote
POPL
Nils Anders Danielsson University of Gothenburg, Naïm Camille Favier Chalmers University of Technology and University of Gothenburg, Ondřej Kubánek Chalmers University of Technology
DOI