A computer system may seek to identify at least one contraction metric that satisfies contraction conditions for a design of a dynamical system. The computer system may do so by formulating a search for a candidate contraction metric that is suspected of satisfying the contraction conditions for the design of the dynamical system from a set of simulation traces that describe the behavior of the dynamical system for a specific set of operating conditions. The search for the candidate contraction metric may then be performed.The computer system may seek to verify that a candidate contraction metric for a design of a dynamical system satisfies contraction conditions by performing a process that uses solvers based on decision procedures.