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First page of A Lean Paper About Paper: A Formal Framework for Origami

A Lean Paper About Paper: A Formal Framework for Origami

Celio Boulay, Alexander Chai, Anthony Chang, Thomas Moulin

cs.LO Sep 14, 2026 · v1
Formalizes origami mathematics in Lean 4 on Mathlib, proving the seven Huzita operations, angle trisection, Cardano's formula, and Haga's theorem.
The mathematics of Origami have been well studied and shown to develop several interesting results. We use Lean 4 tactics and build on Mathlib to redefine the 7 Huzita operations as theorems instead of axioms and prove their existence. We develop proofs for important origami constructions (such as trisecting an angle), implement origami-constructible numbers and prove the associated Cardano's formula, and formalize Haga's theorem. A Crease Pattern Inspector explores physical folding by providing a full pipeline to create and visualize models constrained by the Huzita formalism. The Lean codebase brings 100+ theorems and lemmas.

The mathematics of origami, including the Huzita operations and constructions beyond compass-and-straightedge, lack a formal machine-checked treatment. The Huzita operations are typically stated as axioms with imprecise degeneracy conditions.

The Huzita operations are redefined as theorems in Lean 4 rather than axioms, with existence and uniqueness proved under explicit non-degeneracy hypotheses. Lines are represented by normalized coefficient triples so that plain equality means geometric equality. Origami-constructible numbers, angle trisection, the Delian problem, and Haga's theorem are formalized, building on Mathlib. A web-based Crease Pattern Inspector procedurally converts models into Lean representations with viability proofs, constrained to Huzita-constructible points.

Figure 4 . The Crease Pattern Inspector

A Lean codebase with over 100 theorems and lemmas was produced, covering the seven Huzita folds, angle trisection, Cardano's formula, origami-constructible numbers, and Haga's theorem. The Crease Pattern Inspector provides a pipeline from visual crease patterns to Lean proofs.

(a) The 2D representation of Haga’s theorem in a crease pattern.
Figure 6 . Steps of the trisection using origami ( Richeson, 2012 ) .
FoldHypothesisConclusion
H1p1 ≠ p2∃!
H2p1 ≠ p2∃!
H3None∃
H4None∃!
H5d(p2,l1)² ≤ d(p1,p2)²∃
H6l1 ∦ l2∃
H7l1 ∦ l2∃!
Huzita fold operations with hypotheses and existence/uniqueness conclusions