If a category has pullbacks in a category, each slice category is finitely complete. The identity of the base object is terminal in the slice. Ambient pullbacks in a category inherit a unique common structure map to the base and satisfy the same universal property over that base. A terminal object and pullbacks in a category construct finite products in a category and equalizers, hence all finite limits.
An object of the slice category is a morphism ; a map from to is with . The identity morphism is a terminal object of this slice category, even when itself has no terminal object.
For a cospan in the slice category, form its underlying pullback in a category in , with maps and . If are the structure maps to , then . This common map equips with its slice structure. An underlying mediating map into is automatically over , because its composite with is the prescribed structure map. Hence the same square is a pullback in a category in .