We provide a fairly self-contained account of the localisation and cofinality theorems for the algebraic $\operatorname K$-theory of stable $\infty$-categories. It is based on a general formula for the evaluation of an additive functor on a Verdier quotient closely following work of Waldhausen. We also include a new proof of the additivity theorem of $\operatorname K$-theory, strongly inspired by Ranicki's algebraic Thom construction, a short proof of the universality theorem of Blumberg, Gepner and Tabuada, and a second proof of the cofinality theorem which is based on the universal property of $\operatorname K$-theory.

We prove the analog for the $K$-theory of forms of the $Q=+$ theorem in algebraic $K$-theory. That is, we show that the $K$-theory of forms defined in terms of an $S_{\bullet }$-construction is a group completion of the category of quadratic spaces for form categories in which all admissible exact sequences split. This applies for instance to quadratic and hermitian forms defined with respect to a form parameter.

Exact sequences in algebraic K-theory contain a lot of information. Here it is shown that by using K-theory exact sequences one can easily derive Bass’ description [1] of the SK1 of an ideal in a Dedekind domain in terms of relative reciprocities.