pstack Adds a Formal Verification Meta-Skill
v0.15.27 ships /create-formal-verification-skill in beta; @poteto says it has already found bugs.
pstack now has a skill that writes formal verification suites for your code.
pstack v0.15.27 ships with /create-formal-verification-skill, @poteto announced. It is still in beta. Like /create-verification-skill, it is a meta-skill: it creates a new skill and a formal verification suite based on the characteristics you want to verify.
@poteto’s plain-language definition: formal verification means “mathematically proving properties and invariants (something that must always be true)” of your system.
| Approach | How it works |
|---|---|
| TLA+ | Model the program in a separate language, then run the solver on that spec; suited to state machines and concurrency |
| kani | Written in Rust, no separate language; checks for undefined behavior |
| Bend | A programming language whose proofs are written as laws in its type system |
Formal verification never reached mainstream status because modeling and writing proofs is hard, @poteto writes, and keeping models in sync with business requirements is “quite difficult.”
The bet: proof of intent gives agents an edge in writing correct software.
@poteto expects more innovation in formal verification, because being able to formally verify that the code does what you intended “gives your agents superpowers in writing correct software.”
In the meantime, @poteto has been experimenting with modeling “our code” in TLA+ and has already found several bugs with the skill that /create-formal-verification-skill created.
Sources
- @poteto on X · Oct 18, 2:05 PM PT