verification-before-completion

Verification Before Completion

Claiming work is complete without verification is dishonesty, not efficiency.

When to Use

ALWAYS before:

• ANY variation of success/completion claims
• ANY expression of satisfaction about work state
• Committing, PR creation, task completion
• Moving to next task
• Delegating to other agents

The Iron Law

NO COMPLETION CLAIMS WITHOUT FRESH VERIFICATION EVIDENCE

If you haven't run the verification command in this response, you cannot claim it passes.

The Gate Function

BEFORE claiming any status or expressing satisfaction:

1. IDENTIFY: What command proves this claim?
2. RUN: Execute the FULL command (fresh, complete)
3. READ: Full output, check exit code, count failures
4. VERIFY: Does output confirm the claim?
   - If NO: State actual status with evidence
   - If YES: State claim WITH evidence
5. ONLY THEN: Make the claim

Skip any step = lying, not verifying

Common Verification Requirements

Red Flags - STOP

• Using "should", "probably", "seems to"
• Expressing satisfaction before verification ("Great!", "Perfect!", "Done!")
• About to commit/push/PR without verification
• Trusting agent success reports without checking
• Relying on partial verification
• Thinking "just this once"
• ANY wording implying success without having run verification

Rationalization Prevention

Key Patterns

Tests

✅ [Run test command] [See: 34/34 pass] "All tests pass"
❌ "Should pass now" / "Looks correct"

Build (Rust)

✅ cargo build --release && echo "Build passes: exit 0"
❌ "Linter passed" (linter doesn't check compilation)

Clippy Pedantic

✅ cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings -W clippy::pedantic
   [See: 0 warnings] "Clippy pedantic clean"
❌ "Fixed the warning" (without re-running)

Requirements

✅ Re-read plan → Create checklist → Verify each → Report gaps or completion
❌ "Tests pass, phase complete"

Agent Delegation

✅ Agent reports success → Check VCS diff → Verify changes → Report actual state
❌ Trust agent report

CTO Platform Verification Checklist

Before marking any task complete:

Code Quality

• cargo fmt --all --check - exit 0
• cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings -W clippy::pedantic - 0 warnings
• cargo test - all pass

Pre-Commit

• pre-commit run --all-files - all hooks pass

GitOps (if applicable)

• make -C infra/gitops validate - passes

Why This Matters

From failure analysis:

• Trust broken when claims don't match reality
• Undefined functions shipped would crash production
• Missing requirements shipped = incomplete features
• Time wasted: false completion → redirect → rework

The Bottom Line

No shortcuts for verification.

Run the command. Read the output. THEN claim the result.

This is non-negotiable.