Equation 27 · Part 2 · Why Coding Agents Fail: Long-Horizon Reliability in OpenAI Codex
=
=
What this part means
The expressions on both sides represent the same quantity under the stated assumptions.
Its job in the formula
The equals sign connects the complete expression on the left with the complete expression on the right. Both sides must have compatible units.
Full expression→=→Article meaning
The passage around this formula
Define C as the agent’s completion claim and V as external task success. Four states follow: . False completion is operationally expensive because it transfers discovery to the reviewer. It can arise from missing tests, misread output, stale state, premature stopping, or incentives in the prompt to present a polished result. A reliable harness should make “blocked,” “partially complete,” and “evidence inconclusive” legitimate terminal states.
Learn the underlying idea
An equals sign says that the expression on its left and the expression on its right have the same value under the stated definitions and assumptions.
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