aresbit Distributed Systems — AI-Assisted Formal Verification
Production methodology for TLA+ verification of distributed systems, driven by AI agents. Battle-tested on Azure Storage (found subtle Paxos race condition) and DeepSeek 3FS (verified CRAQ consistency). Based on the Lamport Agent framework.
Workflow Decision Tree
New verification task
├─ New codebase → Full 6-Phase Lamport Workflow (§1)
├─ Design doc only → Start at Phase 3 (properties), then 4→5
├─ Found a bug, confirm fix → Phase 4→5 only (encode fix, re-check)
└─ Just understand code → Phase 1→2 only (happy path + errors)
1. Full 6-Phase Lamport Workflow
All artifacts go in ./spec/<feature>/. Each phase has a user checkpoint before proceeding.
Phase 0 — plan.json
Create a structured plan with all phases, subtasks, and status tracking.
Template and full phase details: references/lamport-agent-workflow.md
Phase 1 — Happy Path & Architecture
AI studies the codebase and produces:
happy_path.md— Entities → Workflows → Success Conditionsarchitecture.md— Components → Data Structures → Interfaces → Configuration
How: Give AI the feature name + component directory. It autonomously identifies relevant files, extracts essential information, and documents findings.
Phase 2 — Error Handling & Concurrency
AI analyzes failures and concurrent interactions:
behavior.md— State transitions, error handling strategies, concurrency control, known invariantsdiagrams.md— Sequence diagrams, error flows, state machines
Phase 3 — Verification Properties
Define safety/liveness properties in natural language and semi-formal TLA+ notation. Prioritize: critical safety → data consistency → protocol correctness → liveness.
Property patterns from CRAQ: references/tla-spec-patterns.md
Phase 4 — Create TLA+ Model
AI encodes the system in TLA+:
<feature>.tla— State variables, Init/Next predicates, fault injection, invariants<feature>.cfg— Model checking bounds, constants, property selection
Key pattern: AI refines the spec iteratively, updating one atomic action at a time. This incremental approach maintains precision.
Phase 5 — Model Check & Debug
Run the pipeline: tlaplus_parse → tlaplus_smoke → tlaplus_check
| Result | Action |
|---|---|
| Syntax error | AI fixes the spec |
| Invariant violation | AI analyzes counterexample trace, explains the design/implementation bug. Do NOT modify the spec to make violations pass. |
| All pass | Document in verification_summary.md |
Script to run the pipeline:
scripts/verify_tla.py
2. Prompt Patterns
Starting Verification
Let's formally verify the <feature> implementation and whether it provides
consistency between reads and writes, including during <failure scenarios>.
Discovering Missing Safety Mechanisms
Investigate how <mechanism> (e.g., etags, locks) are used to prevent race
conditions in this code. Update the spec and documentation accordingly.
Git History Deep-Dive
Analyze the git commit history for this feature using git MCP. Look for any
safety mechanisms, invariants, or edge-case fixes we might have missed.
Real impact: Git analysis on Azure Storage revealed a previously-overlooked pessimistic locking mechanism that was critical to safety.
Counterexample Analysis
Here is the TLC counterexample trace. Identify the problematic sequence,
explain what invariant is violated, and why it happens at the design level.
3. Key Principles
- AI writes specs; humans review. AI-generated TLA+ specs rival human work after iterative refinement.
- One atomic action at a time. Incremental refinement keeps AI precise.
- Only fix syntax errors in the spec. Invariant violations mean bugs in the system, not the spec.
- Git history is safety documentation. Commits and PRs encode design rationale AI can extract.
- AI self-corrects. AI identifies and fixes its own syntax and logic errors (GPT 5.1 even argues back like a human team member).
- Sequential Thinking MCP. Use for complex reasoning chains in Phases 1-3.
4. Quick Reference
| Phase | Key Output | Checkpoint |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | plan.json |
— |
| 1 | happy_path.md, architecture.md |
User validates understanding |
| 2 | behavior.md, diagrams.md |
User reviews analysis |
| 3 | properties.md (7-10 properties) |
User approves properties |
| 4 | <feature>.tla, <feature>.cfg |
— |
| 5 | verification_summary.md |
— |
Resources
references/
- lamport-agent-workflow.md — Complete 6-phase plan template with checkpoint details
- tla-spec-patterns.md — CRAQ property patterns, modeling patterns, common pitfalls
- ai-verification-methodology.md — 8-step methodology from Azure Storage case study
- agent-setup.md — VS Code + TLA+ MCP + Sequential Thinking MCP installation
- lamport-agent-prompt.md — Full Lamport agent system prompt (reference for custom agent creation)
scripts/
verify_tla.py— Run parse → smoke → check pipeline and collect results