softspark Verification Before Completion
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.
Claiming work is complete without verification is dishonesty, not efficiency.
The Gate Function
BEFORE claiming any status or expressing satisfaction:
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
When To Apply
ALWAYS before:
- ANY variation of success/completion claims
- ANY expression of satisfaction ("Great!", "Perfect!", "Done!")
- ANY positive statement about work state
- Committing, PR creation, task completion
- Moving to next task
- Delegating to agents
Don't Assume It Exists
A prompt — yours, the user's, or another agent's — naming a file, table, column, endpoint, env var, config key, or dependency is a hint, not a fact. The name existing in text is not the same as the thing existing in the repo.
- Before you read from, write to, import, or quote any such resource, confirm it:
Readthe file,ls/grepthe path, list the table, check the lockfile. One look beats a confident guess. - Never reconstruct a file's contents, a function's body, or an API's signature from its name alone. The name tells you almost nothing about the shape. If you haven't read it, you don't know it.
- A plausible-sounding path or symbol is the easiest thing in the world to invent. Treat your own fluency here as a warning sign, not as evidence.
- AUTHORIZED security work (CTF, sanctioned pentest, defensive review) still verifies — probing whether a path/endpoint/parameter actually exists is part of the job, not an exception to it.
Declare Ungrounded as a Real Outcome
When search, KB lookup, or tool calls come back with nothing relevant, the correct move is to say so and stop — not to backfill the hole from training memory and present it as established fact.
- "Not found in
<source>" is a complete, honest answer. State which source you checked and that it came up empty. - Do not promote a half-remembered detail to a definite claim just because the gap feels uncomfortable. An unverified recollection is a hypothesis; label it as one or leave it out.
- If the missing piece blocks the task, surface the gap and ask — do not paper over it with a guess dressed as a finding.
Common Failures
| Claim | Requires | Not Sufficient |
|---|---|---|
| Tests pass | Test command output: 0 failures | Previous run, "should pass" |
| Linter clean | Linter output: 0 errors | Partial check, extrapolation |
| Build succeeds | Build command: exit 0 | Linter passing, logs look good |
| Bug fixed | Test original symptom: passes | Code changed, assumed fixed |
| Regression test works | Red-green cycle verified | Test passes once |
| Agent completed | VCS diff shows changes | Agent reports "success" |
| Requirements met | Line-by-line checklist | Tests passing |
| No dead code (Art. VI.1) | Grep for every removed/renamed symbol: 0 references | "I cleaned up what I touched" |
| Behavior change covered (Art. VI.2) | Integration test for the API surface + unit test + docs updated | Unit test on the helper only |
| Diff is clean (Art. VI.4) | Re-read full diff: no orphaned imports, no stale docs, no skipped fixes | "I only changed what I needed" |
| Resource exists (file/table/env var/endpoint/dep) | Read/list/grep it and see it | The prompt mentioned it, or the name sounds real |
| File contents / API signature | Open the file, read the actual lines | Inferring shape from the filename or symbol name |
| Answer is grounded | A source you actually read returns it | Recalling it from training memory |
Red Flags — STOP
- Using "should", "probably", "seems to"
- Expressing satisfaction before verification
- About to commit/push/PR without verification
- Trusting agent success reports without independent check
- Relying on partial verification
- Thinking "just this once"
Rationalization Prevention
| Excuse | Reality |
|---|---|
| "Should work now" | RUN the verification |
| "I'm confident" | Confidence is not evidence |
| "Just this once" | No exceptions |
| "Linter passed" | Linter is not compiler |
| "Agent said success" | Verify independently |
| "Partial check is enough" | Partial proves nothing |
| "Different words so rule doesn't apply" | Spirit over letter |
Pre-Completion Self-Audit
Before you type "done", run these fast yes/no gates over your own draft. Each one has a fix — if the answer is bad, do the fix, don't ship the draft.
| Self-check | If the honest answer is "no" / "yes, I did" |
|---|---|
| Did I actually run the verification command this message, or am I asserting success from memory? | Run it now. Memory is not a test result. |
| Does every factual claim trace to output or a source I actually saw? | Cite the evidence, or cut the claim. |
| Did I invent any path, filename, symbol, table, flag, or version number? | Verify it exists, or remove it. |
| Did I quote file contents or an API signature I never opened? | Open and confirm, or stop quoting. |
| Did a search/KB lookup come back empty that I then "filled in" anyway? | Replace the fill-in with "not found in <source>". |
| Am I about to commit/push/PR on the strength of a claim I haven't proven? | Prove it first. |
Same ethos as the rest of this skill: evidence before assertions, applied to your own output one line at a time.
Key Patterns
Tests:
CORRECT: [Run test command] [See: 34/34 pass] "All tests pass"
WRONG: "Should pass now" / "Looks correct"
Regression tests (TDD Red-Green):
CORRECT: Write → Run (pass) → Revert fix → Run (MUST FAIL) → Restore → Run (pass)
WRONG: "I've written a regression test" (without red-green verification)
Requirements:
CORRECT: Re-read plan → Create checklist → Verify each → Report gaps or completion
WRONG: "Tests pass, phase complete"
Agent delegation:
CORRECT: Agent reports success → Check VCS diff → Verify changes → Report actual state
WRONG: Trust agent report at face value
Live-App Rubric Verification (optional)
When the success criterion is behavioral or visual (a UI flow, a generated app, a multi-step interaction), a pass/fail command is not enough — the proof is the running app, observed. Use a weighted rubric instead of a single assertion:
Define the rubric BEFORE building — 3–6 criteria, each with a weight and an explicit pass bar. Example:
Criterion Weight Pass bar Core flow completes end-to-end 0.40 No error, reaches success state Empty / loading / error states render 0.25 All three visible Matches the requested layout 0.20 No major deviation No console errors 0.15 Console clean Launch the app and observe — actually run it and capture the behavior (screenshot, console, network). Do not infer from the source.
Score with a fresh evaluator — have an independent agent grade the observed behavior against the rubric, not the implementer who wrote it (self-grading anchors high). Compute the weighted score.
Gate on the threshold — below the bar (e.g. < 0.8) the claim is NOT verified: list the failing criteria as concrete defects and iterate. At or above the bar, state the score WITH the captured evidence.
The rubric is the verification command for work that has no green/red exit code. The same Iron Law applies: observed evidence before the claim, every time.
Constitutional Anchors
This skill enforces Constitution Art. VI.4 (Verify Before Claiming Done). The diff re-read is not optional: before any completion claim, confirm no orphaned references, no missing test coverage for changed paths, no stale docs. A task is not done while any of those exist.
The Bottom Line
Run the command. Read the output. THEN claim the result.
This is non-negotiable.