Emasoft Verification before completion
A claim that something works is a hypothesis until it has been run and the output read. This skill is the check that turns one into the other.
The procedure
Run it. Execute the test, the build, the command — whatever would actually exercise the behavior. Reasoning about what the code should do is not verification, however careful the reasoning was.
Read the real output. Not the exit code alone, not the part you expected. A suite that reports success while skipping the relevant test has told you nothing; confirm the test ran.
Report what happened, including what failed. "Tests pass" when two were skipped is a false report. Name what was skipped and why. If part of the task is incomplete, say which part — scaling the work down is the requester's call, not yours.
When you could not verify something, say so and name what would. An unverified claim stated as fact is the specific failure this exists to prevent. "I could not run the integration suite; it needs a live database" is a useful report. Silence is not.
For generated or templated output
A green test suite is not evidence that a generator is correct — it only shows the assertions you thought to write are satisfied. Open the generated artifact and read it. Placeholders that never substituted, instructions addressed to a component that does not exist, and references to names that were never emitted all compile, all pass, and are all visible on sight.
What does not count as verification
| not verification | why |
|---|---|
| "the edit applied cleanly" | the file changed; nothing says the behavior is right |
| "it compiles" | type-correct and wrong are compatible |
| "the tests I wrote pass" | the untested path is where the bug is |
| "it looks correct" | this is the claim, not evidence for it |
| a summary of your own intent | intent and outcome diverge; that is the whole problem |
Before you say "done"
- The change was executed, not just written.
- The output was read, not just the status.
- Failures and skips are named explicitly.
- Anything unverified is flagged as unverified.
- For generated artifacts: the artifact itself was opened and read.