tomevault-io Related skills: Follow up with
/skill:requesting-code-reviewbefore merging. Done?/skill:finishing-a-development-branch.
Verification Before Completion
Overview
Claiming work is complete without verification is dishonesty, not efficiency.
Core principle: Evidence before claims, always.
Violating the letter of this rule is violating the spirit of this rule.
If a tool result contains a ⚠️ workflow warning, stop immediately and address it before continuing.
Boundaries
- Run verification commands: yes
- Read code and output: yes
- Edit source code: no
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.
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
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 |
Rationalization Prevention
| Excuse | Reality |
|---|---|
| "Should work now" | RUN the verification |
| "I'm confident" | Confidence ≠ evidence |
| "Just this once" | No exceptions |
| "Linter passed" | Linter ≠ compiler |
| "Agent said success" | Verify independently |
| "I'm tired" | Exhaustion ≠ excuse |
| "Partial check is enough" | Partial proves nothing |
| "Different words so rule doesn't apply" | Spirit over letter |
Red Flags - STOP
- Using "should", "probably", "seems to"
- Expressing satisfaction before verification ("Great!", "Perfect!", "Done!", etc.)
- About to commit/push/PR without verification
- Trusting agent success reports without checking outputs
- Relying on partial verification
- Thinking "just this once"
- Tired and wanting work over
- ANY wording implying success without fresh evidence
Key Patterns
Tests:
✅ Run tests + confirm 0 failures before saying "tests pass"
❌ "Should pass now" / "Looks correct"
Regression tests (TDD Red-Green):
✅ Verify red → green sequence before claiming fix durability
❌ "I added a regression test" (without proving red-green)
Build:
✅ Run build command + confirm exit 0
❌ "Linter passed" (linter ≠ build)
Requirements:
✅ Check requirements one-by-one, report verified status
❌ "Tests pass, so everything is complete"
Agent delegation:
✅ Verify agent output + diffs + commands yourself
❌ Trust "agent says success"
When To Apply
ALWAYS before:
- ANY variation of success/completion claims
- ANY expression of satisfaction
- ANY positive statement about work state
- Committing, PR creation, task completion
- Moving to next task
- Delegating to agents
Rule applies to:
- Exact phrases and paraphrases
- Implications of success
- ANY communication suggesting completion/correctness
Enforcement
The workflow-monitor extension monitors git commit, git push, and gh pr create. If you haven't run a passing test suite since your last source file edit, a warning is injected into the tool result. The warning clears automatically after a fresh passing test run.
When all verification passes, mark the verify phase complete: call plan_tracker with {action: "update", status: "complete"} for the current phase.
Source: coctostan/pi-superpowers-plus — distributed by TomeVault.