# Verify Build

> SeldonFrame merge gate — run unit tests + tsc + check-use-server + migration-journal + regression-grep and return ONE pass/fail verdict. Invoke before merging any branch; nothing merges without a green verdict.

- Skill: `seldonframe/verify-build` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add seldonframe/verify-build`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/seldonframe/verify-build/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: seldonframe (https://skillmd.com/u/seldonframe)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/seldonframe/verify-build

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# /verify-build — the merge gate

The single objective gate every branch passes before merge. It exists to kill the "looks done" failure: a build ships only when the gate is green, not when an agent says it's finished.

**The rule: no branch merges to `main` without a PASS verdict from this skill.** The agent that wrote the code does NOT get to wave it through (maker ≠ checker).

## Run these six checks (from the worktree root)

1. **Unit tests** — the suites touched by the change (or the package suite):
   `cd packages/crm && node --import tsx --test tests/unit/<area>/*.spec.ts`
   PASS = `fail 0`. Use `node --import tsx`, **not** bare `tsx` (the `@/` alias needs the import hook).

2. **Type check** — `packages/crm/node_modules/.bin/tsc -p packages/crm/tsconfig.json --noEmit`
   PASS = **0 NEW** errors. The ONLY allowed baseline is the ~10 pre-existing `.next/types/validator.ts` React-19 generated artifacts (already `ignoreBuildErrors`-ed). Any other error = FAIL.

3. **use-server hygiene** — `bash scripts/check-use-server.sh src`
   PASS = clean (every `"use server"` module exports only async functions).

4. **Migration journal** (only if the change added a migration) — confirm `packages/crm/drizzle/meta/_journal.json` gained exactly one appended entry (the new tag) and the journal check reports 0 orphans.
   ⚠️ The drizzle dir has pre-existing un-journaled `.sql` files with colliding numbers (0025/0026/0027/0028…). These are known cruft. Judge by the **journal append** + the new migration being **additive**, NOT by `cat 00NN_*.sql` (which globs the orphan too).

5. **Regression grep** — confirm the change did NOT touch the files it promised to leave alone. For each build, name the forbidden set and grep the diff:
   `git diff --name-only origin/main..HEAD | grep -E '<forbidden paths>'` → must be **empty**.
   Common forbidden sets: workspace booking (`bookings/actions.ts`, `bookings/create-for-customer.ts`, `bookings/providers.ts`); messaging confirmation (`messaging/skills/booking-confirmation.ts`, `messaging/dispatch.ts`); email/sms paths when the change shouldn't touch them.

6. **Live smoke** (any change that affects a served route/page) — after the deploy
   (confirm the live sha via `curl -s .../api/version` first), hit each CHANGED
   route and assert three things: **HTTP 200**, a **DOM sentinel** (a string the
   change should have put on the page — or at minimum the page's known heading),
   and **no error signature** in the structured logs for that request. A few
   `curl` + grep, or one `haiku` agent reading the responses.
   PASS = every changed route 200s with its sentinel.
   ⚠️ Why this is a gate and not a nice-to-have: tsc + `next build` +
   check-use-server were ALL green on a change that 500'd every dynamic render
   in prod (the `buttonVariants` RSC outage — dynamic routes are never
   prerendered, so `next build` can't see a render-time crash). Static gates
   prove it compiles; only a live request proves it runs.

## Verdict (return ONE line)
- **PASS** — all six green. Safe to merge. State: the test count, that tsc/use-server/journal are clean, that the regression grep was empty, and which routes were live-smoked.
- **FAIL** — name the exact failing check + the failure. Do NOT merge. Hand back to the implementer.

## Why this is the keystone
This is the one block that turns repetition into progress. Without it a loop bills you in silence (the "Ralph Wiggum" early-exit — an agent declares done on a half-finished job). With it, the maker can be fast + cheap because the gate is strict + independent. Prove it manually a few times, then it becomes the verifier inside `/ship-feature` and the heartbeat of a scheduled green-main guardian.

## Framing the loop this gate closes (the goal contract)

This gate is only the *stop condition* of a loop. A loop converges when its **goal** is written as a contract the runner can check itself against — five parts, stated up front before any code:

1. **Objective** — one sentence, the observable end state ("SeldonChat can set a hero background and the result renders legibly"), not a task list.
2. **Constraints** — the invariants that must hold: files/systems to leave alone, the house rules (add named files only, money-safe, org-scope every query, SSRF-guard user URLs), flag-gating, "no new deps."
3. **Validation command** — the exact runnable check that decides done. For a merge, that command *is* `/verify-build` (the six checks above) — plus `vision-verify` for anything with a visual surface. Name it explicitly so the loop runs it, not guesses.
4. **Stop condition** — when to stop: "validation green AND an independent reviewer approved," or a hard iteration cap. Never "when it looks done."
5. **Docs / context** — the 2-3 files, specs, or seams to read first, so the runner starts with the map, not a blank slate.

**The one rule that protects the whole loop: never weaken the validation to make it pass.** Do not delete or loosen a failing assertion, lower a threshold, `skip` a test, or narrow a rubric to get green. A test that no longer asserts the behavior is worse than a red one — it launders "broken" into "done." If a check is genuinely wrong, fix the check *and say so*; don't quietly file it down. This is what keeps `maker ≠ checker` honest: the gate only means something if the maker can't move it.