The general adjoint functor theorem has the following limit form. Let be a functor, where is a complete category and both categories are locally small. Then has a left adjoint exactly when it preserves small limits and satisfies the solution-set condition.
The solution-set condition requires that, for each , there be a set of pairs such that every factors as
Equivalently, each comma category has a weakly initial set. All completeness and preservation requirements here concern small categorical limits. Dually, a small-colimit-preserving functor from a cocomplete category has a right adjoint precisely when each has a weakly terminal set.