# Towards LLM-Powered Verilog RTL Assistant: Self-Verification and Self-Correction

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.00115 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.00115/

## Key facts

- Cited by 39 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 31 May 2024.

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 39)

- [Revisiting VerilogEval: A Year of Improvements in Large-Language Models for Hardware Code Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.11053/) (2024)
- [MAGE: A Multi-Agent Engine for Automated RTL Code Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.07822/) (2024)
- [Automatically Improving LLM-based Verilog Generation using EDA Tool Feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.11856/) (2024)
- [HDLCoRe: A Training-Free Framework for Mitigating Hallucinations in LLM-Generated HDL](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.16528/) (2025)
- [Location is Key: Leveraging Large Language Model for Functional Bug Localization in Verilog](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.15186/) (2024)
- [CoopetitiveV: Leveraging LLM-powered Coopetitive Multi-Agent Prompting for High-quality Verilog Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.11014/) (2024)
- [TuRTLe: A Unified Evaluation of LLMs for RTL Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.01986/) (2025)
- [Understanding and Mitigating Errors of LLM-Generated RTL Code](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.05266/) (2025)
- [Large Language Model for Verilog Code Generation: Literature Review and the Road Ahead](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.00020/) (2025)
- [SoK: Agentic Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG): Taxonomy, Architectures, Evaluation, and Research Directions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.07379/) (2026)
- [Explainable XR: Understanding User Behaviors of XR Environments using LLM-assisted Analytics Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.13778/) (2025)
- [SV-LLM: An Agentic Approach for SoC Security Verification using Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.20415/) (2025)
- [Nexus: A Lightweight and Scalable Multi-Agent Framework for Complex Tasks Automation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.19091/) (2025)
- [DecoRTL: A Run-time Decoding Framework for RTL Code Generation with LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.02226/) (2025)
- [Hey AI, Generate Me a Hardware Code! Agentic AI-based Hardware Design & Verification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.02660/) (2025)
- [GRPO with State Mutations: Improving LLM-Based Hardware Test Plan Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.07593/) (2026)
- [RTLSeek: Boosting the LLM-Based RTL Generation with Multi-Stage Diversity-Oriented Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.27630/) (2026)
- [CktEvo: Repository-Level RTL Code Benchmark for Design Evolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.08718/) (2026)
- [UCAgent: An End-to-End Agent for Block-Level Functional Verification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.25768/) (2026)
- [IICPilot: An Intelligent Integrated Circuit Backend Design Framework Using Open EDA](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.12576/) (2024)
- [ProtocolLLM: RTL Benchmark for SystemVerilog Generation of Communication Protocols](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.07945/) (2025)
- [CRADLE: Conversational RTL Design Space Exploration with LLM-based Multi-Agent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.08709/) (2025)
- [DeepV: A Model-Agnostic Retrieval-Augmented Framework for Verilog Code Generation with a High-Quality Knowledge Base](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.05327/) (2025)
- [FVRuleLearner: Operator-Level Reasoning Tree (Op-Tree)-Based Rules Learning for Formal Verification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.03245/) (2026)
- [VeriPilot: An LLM-Powered Verilog Debugging Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.23759/) (2026)
- [LLMs in Digital EDA: A perspective on shifting roles from Generation to Orchestration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.27184/) (2026)
- [EDA-Aware RTL Generation with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.04485/) (2024)
- [NLS: Natural-Level Synthesis for Hardware Implementation Through GenAI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.01981/) (2025)
- [ML For Hardware Design Interpretability: Challenges and Opportunities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.08852/) (2025)
- [DUET: Agentic Design Understanding via Experimentation and Testing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.06247/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We explore the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) to generate high-quality Register-Transfer Level (RTL) code with minimal human interference. The traditional RTL design workflow requires human experts to manually write high-quality RTL code, which is time-consuming and error-prone. With the help of emerging LLMs, developers can describe their requirements to LLMs which then generate corresponding code in Python, C, Java, and more. Adopting LLMs to generate RTL design in hardware description languages is not trivial, given the complex nature of hardware design and the generated design has to meet the timing and physical constraints. We propose VeriAssist, an LLM-powered programming assistant for Verilog RTL design workflow. VeriAssist takes RTL design descriptions as input and generates high-quality RTL code with corresponding test benches. VeriAssist enables the LLM to self-correct and self-verify the generated code by adopting an automatic prompting system and integrating RTL simulator in the code generation loop. To generate an RTL design, VeriAssist first generates the initial RTL code and corresponding test benches, followed by a self-verification step that walks through the code with test cases to reason the code behavior at different time steps, and finally it self-corrects the code by reading the compilation and simulation results and generating final RTL code that fixes errors in compilation and simulation. This design fully leverages the LLMs' capabilities on multi-turn interaction and chain-of-thought reasoning to improve the quality of the generated code. We evaluate VeriAssist with various benchmark suites and find it significantly improves both syntax and functionality correctness over existing LLM implementations, thus minimizing human intervention and making RTL design more accessible to novice designers.
