verification-before-completion

Verification Before Completion

Overview

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

Core principle: Evidence before claims, always.

Violating the letter of this rule is violating the spirit of this rule.

This skill enforces mandatory verification before ANY completion claim, preventing false positives, broken builds, and trust violations.

When to Use This Skill

Activate ALWAYS before claiming:

• Success, completion, or satisfaction ("Done!", "Fixed!", "Great!")
• Tests pass, linter clean, build succeeds
• Committing, pushing, creating PRs
• Marking tasks complete or delegating to agents

Use this ESPECIALLY when:

• Under time pressure or tired
• "Quick fix" seems obvious or you're confident
• Agent reports success or tests "should" pass

The Iron Law

NO COMPLETION CLAIMS WITHOUT FRESH VERIFICATION EVIDENCE

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

Core Principles

1. Evidence Required: Every claim needs supporting evidence
2. Fresh Verification: Must verify now, not rely on previous runs
3. Complete Verification: Full command, not partial checks
4. Honest Reporting: Report actual state, not hoped-for state

Quick Start

The five-step gate function:

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.

Key Patterns

Correct Pattern:

✅ [Run pytest] [Output: 34/34 passed] "All tests pass"

Incorrect Patterns:

❌ "Should pass now"
❌ "Looks correct"
❌ "Tests were passing"
❌ "I'm confident it works"

Red Flags - STOP Immediately

If you catch yourself:

• Using "should", "probably", "seems to"
• Expressing satisfaction before verification
• About to commit/push/PR without verification
• Trusting agent success reports
• Relying on partial verification

ALL of these mean: STOP. Run verification first.

Why This Matters

Statistics from real-world failures:

• Verification cost: 2 minutes
• Recovery cost: 120+ minutes (60x more expensive)
• 40% of unverified "complete" claims required rework

Core violation: "If you lie, you'll be replaced"

Navigation

For detailed information:

• Gate Function: Complete five-step verification process with decision trees
• Verification Patterns: Correct verification patterns for tests, builds, deployments, and more
• Red Flags and Failures: Common failure modes, red flags, and real-world examples with time/cost data
• Integration and Workflows: Integration with other skills, CI/CD patterns, and agent delegation workflows

The Bottom Line

No shortcuts for verification.

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

This is non-negotiable.