Auto Verify

auto-verify

Verification gate. Independent audit of a completed plan. It runs once, not per-slice.

First action: run node .agent/.automaton/scripts/get-context.mjs from the project root.

Preamble

Independent audit. Re-read the plan, run proof commands, and compare fresh results to acceptance criteria. It does not trust execute's self-assessment or fix what it finds. When continuing inline from execute, re-derive from fresh command output; execute's reasoning is context, not evidence.

Loading discipline: on warm continuation from execute, one PLAN.md read plus verification commands per criterion. On cold entry, load in dependency order, spec before plan; auto-resume owns the full order table. Read source files when verifying correctness requires inspecting the actual changes, not just command output.

Quality Gate

Before writing the verification report:

• Tie every result to fresh command output or direct observation.
• Name skipped checks explicitly. Omission is not a pass.
• Treat partial evidence as FAIL for the plan.
• Read references/quality.md when the report sounds confident without proof.

Do

Load State

Read the canonical PLAN.md. Load only linked slices/slice-NNN.md files and referenced requirement IDs from spec/*.md: linked detail and traceability IDs are normative, and an unlinked supplemental file is not verification context. For prose slices, read references/content-verification.md.

Mark Verify Stage

After PLAN.md resolves and before running commands, run node .agent/.automaton/scripts/sync-status.mjs --stage verify from the project root.

Collect Acceptance Criteria

Gather every acceptance criterion and verification command from every slice in PLAN.md. Build a checklist: slice name → criterion → command. This is a plan-level audit.

Do NOT modify source code, tests, or project artifacts during verification. Verify reads and runs commands; its only writes are the markdown records this skill owns (VERIFY-GAP blocks, the ## Verification section, the ROADMAP phase update). It does not fix.

Do NOT run any git write command (commit, amend, reset, rebase, branch, checkout, worktree, push). The commit rhythm is owned by auto-execute (see .agent/.automaton/references/ARTIFACT-LIFECYCLE.md, Git Rhythm). Markdown writes that verify produces (VERIFY-GAP blocks on FAIL, the ## Verification section and ROADMAP phase update on PASS) sit in the working tree; auto-execute sweeps them up on re-entry, or the user closes them after a terminal pass.

Run Verification

Execute verification commands for each criterion. Mark each PASS, FAIL, or PARTIAL. If a criterion lacks a command, derive one from the acceptance criterion and document what you ran. For content slices, verify audience, thesis, voice, content anti-goals, channel, source policy, factual risk, format, and anti-slop scan with evidence.

Evaluate

Binary: the plan passes only when every criterion across all slices passes. One FAIL means the plan fails.

Report

Build the full criterion checklist internally. Use references/verification-template.md for report shape. Summarize passing criteria by slice. Expand failures, skipped checks, derived commands, PARTIAL results, or small 1-2 criterion plans.

On Pass

• Append a compact ## Verification section to the canonical PLAN.md (append-replace, never stack): per-slice criterion rollup, commands run, derived or skipped checks named, and the PASS verdict. Use the durable-record shape in references/verification-template.md. This is the record a future change or auditor reads. The inline report evaporates with the conversation.
• Run node .agent/.automaton/scripts/sync-status.mjs --stage verified from the project root. The verified sync disengages the harness: later session hooks stay quiet until a new objective starts.
• If .agent/steering/ROADMAP.md exists, mark the matching change: phase status: done per .agent/.automaton/references/ROADMAP-CONTRACT.md. Skip empty or non-matching phases. When no active or pending phase and no deferred item remains, reset to the contract's empty shape. The ROADMAP edit lands in the working tree as a markdown leftover. Do not commit it. The user closes it in their own rhythm.
• End the report with Change status: complete and a separate New objective line pointing to auto-frame for future work. Do not print a Next: line on PASS. Use auto-resume only for later re-entry or recovery.

On Fail

Before annotating, check each failing criterion for an existing VERIFY-GAP block from a prior verification of this change. A repeat means the gap-fix cycle did not close it: the plan or spec is the suspect, not the implementation.

• First failure: annotate failed slices in PLAN.md with structured gap blocks, run node .agent/.automaton/scripts/sync-status.mjs --stage execute from the project root so re-entry resumes gap fixing, and hand off with **Next:** auto-execute, <reason>, which reads these annotations on re-entry.
• Repeated failure of the same criterion: annotate, run node .agent/.automaton/scripts/sync-status.mjs --stage plan from the project root, and hand off with **Next:** auto-plan, <reason naming the repeated criterion>.

Each gap block needs VERIFY-GAP, evidence, and a fix objective. Append-replace (.agent/.automaton/references/FRAMEWORK.md, Artifact Signal Discipline): replace prior VERIFY-GAP blocks for the same slice rather than stacking.

Output

• Inline verification report; PLAN.md annotated with VERIFY-GAP blocks on failure, or closed with a durable ## Verification section on pass
• State recorded in current.json through sync-status.mjs: stage: verify when verification starts, stage: verified on pass, stage: execute on fail, or stage: plan on a repeated fail of the same criterion
• .agent/steering/ROADMAP.md phase marked done on pass when applicable
• Warning-level findings surface to the verification report.

Rules

• Verify what the plan requires. Flag an unmentioned common gap (input validation, concurrency, security) only when it is obviously critical to the change.