# Check Dont Assume

> Verify every load-bearing claim by reading the code or running the check; never assert from memory or dismiss something as too obvious to confirm.

- Skill: `kalabint/check-dont-assume` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add kalabint/check-dont-assume`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/kalabint/check-dont-assume/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: Kalabint (https://skillmd.com/u/kalabint)
- Updated: 2026-09-21
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/kalabint/check-dont-assume

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# Check, do not assume

Before stating a fact a decision will rest on, look: read the file, run the query, probe the endpoint. "It obviously does X" is the phrasing that precedes being wrong.

**Why:** the cost of a wrong asserted fact is paid downstream by whoever trusted it; the cost of checking is seconds.

**How to apply:** when you catch yourself about to write "this should", "presumably", or "it must", convert it into an observation with a command behind it. Keep what you verified separate from what you inferred, and label the inferences as inferences.