On exact categories and their stable envelopes

Abstract

We show that Klemenc's stable envelope of exact $\infty$-categories induces an equivalence between stable $\infty$-categories with a bounded heart structure and weakly idempotent complete exact $\infty$-categories. Moreover, we generalise the Gillet-Waldhausen theorem to the connective algebraic K-theory of exact $\infty$-categories and deduce a universal property of connective algebraic K-theory as an additive invariant on exact $\infty$-categories. A key tool is a generalisation of a theorem due to Keller which provides a sufficient condition for an exact functor to induce a fully faithful functor on stable envelopes.