Correctness Condition | Engineering Wiki

An explicit condition defining when software behavior or a generated change should be considered correct under stated inputs, invariants, and operational limits.

“It ran” and “it is correct” are different claims.

A correctness condition turns expected behavior into an observable acceptance boundary. In a real-time processor, for example, producing the right value may be insufficient if ordering must also be preserved, duplicate processing must be prevented, and latency must remain below a defined limit.

correct = functional result
        + preserved invariants
        + error bounds
        + time/resource constraints

Not every requirement can be formalized completely. Even so, leaving acceptance conditions implicit creates room for a human and an AI tool to interpret “success” differently.

This is central to intent-oriented development: the goal is not merely to generate code, but to define what makes the resulting behavior acceptable.

Related: Intent Programming.