| name | tla-plus-expert |
| version | 1.0.0 |
| description | TLA+ formal specification expert for writing specs, model checking, and applying formal methods to amplihack workflows |
| activation_keywords | ["TLA+","TLA","formal specification","formal spec","model checking","model checker","TLC","PlusCal","invariant","liveness property","safety property","temporal logic","state machine spec","protocol verification"] |
| agent | amplihack:specialized:tla-plus-expert |
TLA+ Expert Skill
Purpose
Provides expert-level TLA+ formal specification assistance for designing, verifying, and reasoning about concurrent and distributed systems within amplihack.
When This Skill Activates
- User asks to write or review a TLA+ specification
- User needs help with model checking (TLC) configuration or output interpretation
- User wants to formally verify a protocol or workflow design
- User asks about invariants, liveness properties, or safety properties
- User wants to apply formal methods to amplihack components
- User mentions PlusCal or wants to translate between PlusCal and TLA+
- User references Lamport, Demirbas, or formal methods best practices
How It Works
This skill delegates to the tla-plus-expert agent which has deep knowledge of:
- TLA+ language and idioms — writing specs, operators, temporal formulas
- TLC model checker — configuration, trace interpretation, state space management
- Seven mental models (Demirbas) — abstraction, global shared memory, local guards, invariants, stepwise refinement, atomicity refinement, communication
- Industry case studies — 8 production uses from AWS, MongoDB, Microsoft Azure
- AI + TLA+ limitations — SysMoBench findings on LLM capabilities and guardrails
- amplihack experiment infrastructure — manifest-driven experiments, heuristic scoring, TLC validation integration
Integration with Existing Infrastructure
The amplihack repo includes a TLA+ experiment runner at src/amplihack/eval/tla_prompt_experiment.py with:
- Manifest-driven experiment matrix (models x prompt variants x repeats)
- 6 heuristic scoring dimensions
- Real TLC validation support
- Replay and live execution modes
TLA+ specs live in experiments/hive_mind/tla_prompt_language/specs/.
Usage Examples
# Write a spec for a new protocol
/tla-plus-expert Write a TLA+ spec for our consensus voting workflow
# Review an existing spec
/tla-plus-expert Review specs/SmartOrchestrator.tla for correctness
# Help with TLC output
/tla-plus-expert TLC found a counterexample in my spec, help me understand it
# Decide if TLA+ is appropriate
/tla-plus-expert Should I formally specify this retry cascade logic?
# Generate invariants
/tla-plus-expert What invariants should I check for a parallel workstream manager?
Key Resources
- TLA+ specs:
experiments/hive_mind/tla_prompt_language/specs/
- Experiment runner:
src/amplihack/eval/tla_prompt_experiment.py
- TLC binary:
/usr/local/bin/tlc (if installed)
- Issue #3939: TLA+ integration roadmap
