declaratively

Declaratively is the adverb form of declarative. It describes performing an action or presenting information in a way that states a desired end result or fact, rather than detailing the steps to achieve it. The term is used across fields, notably in computer science, design, and language.

In computing, declaratively describes approaches that specify the outcome and let a system determine the steps. The contrast is with imperative programming, which encodes explicit instructions. Examples include SQL queries that describe the data to retrieve, HTML and CSS that declare document structure and style, and configuration or deployment tools such as Terraform, Kubernetes manifests, and Ansible when used declaratively.

Benefits include readability, maintainability, and easier reasoning about system state, along with idempotence, where applying the same declaration yields the same result. Drawbacks include less control over performance, potential hidden side effects, and debugging difficulties when the system’s reconciliation algorithm behaves unexpectedly.

In other domains, declaratively also applies to grammar and linguistics, where declarative sentences assert information. The term emphasizes describing what should be rather than how to achieve it, a distinction that guides design choices, tooling, and expectations for correctness in complex systems.