How to Budget Proof Credits for Lean Work

What a credit represents

Each pass contains a fixed number of proof credits. Credits scope proof-engineering attention: statement review, local reproduction, goal analysis, lemma discovery and verification notes. Intake instructions define how a request is accepted and tracked.

The three passes exist to separate a single blocked theorem from a proof campaign. Buying the largest pass is unnecessary if the immediate goal is a statement review or a reproducible failure report.

Choose a pass by the decision in front of you

• ✓Starter: one theorem or a small failing proof needs a clear next move.
• ✓Pro: several related declarations need repair and dependency cleanup.
• ✓Team: a shared backlog needs consistent intake, review notes and campaign coordination.

Reduce cost with a better handoff

A reproducible checkout, exact build command, minimal failing declaration and written acceptance criteria reduce the time spent rediscovering context. Vague requests consume budget on clarification rather than proof engineering.

Separate formalization infrastructure from exploratory mathematics. Infrastructure is easier to scope and often unlocks several theorem attempts at once.

Budget for uncertainty, not certainty

Lean verification is binary at the kernel level, but mathematical discovery is not. A pass can produce a checked proof, a precise obstruction, a smaller counterexample or a better statement. All four can be useful outcomes, but only one of them is a guaranteed theorem.