2026/07/14 by Marcus J. Min, Mike He, Zhaoyu Li +5 · 1 voice
Computer Science · #cs.AI #cs.CL #cs.LG #cs.PL
arxiv published 2026/07/14 · arxiv updated 2026/08/05
Autoformalization translates informal natural language into formal, machine-verifiable languages. While most work focuses on individual statements, real formalization efforts are inherently theory-level: they require an entire web of axioms, definitions, and lemmas before target theorems can even be stated. In this position paper, we argue for theory-level autoformalization: formalizing complete theories, including all their inter-dependencies, as structured libraries. We examine the significance of this shift, address alternative views, identify open challenges, and propose three promising paths forward. Our survey of autoformalization is available at https://github.com/marcusm117/Awesome-Autoformalization.