---
title: "When should the audit happen?"
description: "Engage early enough that findings can still change the design, and late enough that the code is stable — in practice, when the circuits and protocol are…"
type: "question"
url: "https://zkpick.com/faq/when-should-the-audit-happen/"
section: "03 Auditing a ZK protocol"
authors:
  - "MarketComp"
publisher: "MarketComp"
version: "1.3"
updated: "2026-09-12"
license: "CC-BY-4.0"
json: "https://zkpick.com/data/faq/when-should-the-audit-happen.json"
---

*By MarketComp. Updated 2026-09-12. Version 1.3. CC BY 4.0.*

# When should the audit happen?

Engage early enough that findings can still change the design, and late enough that the code is stable — in practice, when the circuits and protocol are feature-complete and the specification is written, not when the launch date is three weeks away. The specification is the binding constraint: an auditor cannot tell you a circuit is underconstrained without a statement of what it was supposed to constrain. Budget separate time for a fix-review round. See Section 03.