Circular check

A check whose verdict is derived from the thing it is meant to test: a total computed from the rows it checks, a screen calibrated on the value it screens, a verdict read from the configuration that produced the build. A check that consults its own input is a mirror, not a gate.

Principle 6 · Test that a check fires, not that it exists

Where does Circular check come from?

Principle 6 of the Kymira doctrine, Test that a check fires, not that it exists. Circular check is the name the doctrine gives to what that principle requires in practice.

What failure is Circular check named after?

The check that reads its own configuration. A check with a genuine fire test, a unique evidence file, and a clean gate run, whose verdict is nonetheless built from a config flag the same build set to true. It cannot see the render step drop a marker.

What does it look like on a real file?

A check whose verdict is read from the configuration flag the same build has just set to true.

Not for

Not always visible in the code. A circular check can have a real fire test, a unique evidence file, and a clean gate run.

Nearest terms

Painted rowA check row whose verdict text is fixed in the template while the scan's real findings are...UNCALIBRATEDThe verdict a plausibility screen returns for a group too small to read without the row under...Leave-one-out basisScreening a value against its own group's distribution computed with that value excluded

Last updated 2026-09-02 · Dylan, founder · one of 40 terms in the Kymira glossary, each one named after something we watched go wrong in a real build or in our own audits.

Get the free skill → The doctrine The failure catalogue