Z3 Rust Guide: Filling the Gaps in the API

Recently I’ve been working on a research project involving a transpiler from Rust to SMT. The project is still in progress, so I won’t share too many details just yet — but along the way, I ran into several missing features and rough edges in the high-level Rust Z3 API (especially when compared to the C API).

To address some of these limitations, I submitted several contributions to the z3.rs repository:

• Pull requests: #386–#394
• Issue: z3 / z3.rs

In parallel, I also wrote a guide for developers and researchers who are interested in using Z3 from Rust.

📎 Download the guide (PDF)

📘 What’s in the Guide?

The document includes:

• When and how to use each method in the high-level API
• Differences between sorts (e.g., Int, Real, Float, BitVec)
• Common pitfalls and when not to use certain constructs
• Concrete, runnable examples across a variety of use cases

This guide can be valuable for people who are new to Z3 or those who have used it in other languages and want to get up to speed with the Rust API. Note that the document is my understanding of the API as of July 2025, so it may not not be completely correct or up-to-date with the latest changes in the z3.rs repository. Also, some parts of this guide are directly adapted from existing documentation and do not represent original contributions.

I hope you find it useful! If you have any feedback or suggestions for improvements, feel free to reach out to me via email or GitHub.

Update (19 of August 2025): My document is now available on the z3prover official website. You can find it listed as the Rust binding guide.