Verification Gates

Verification Gates

Overview

Verification gates are mandatory quality checkpoints that must pass before any implementation work is considered complete. These gates prevent broken code from being committed, ensure type safety, maintain code style consistency, and validate that all tests pass.

Owner Agent: Alphonse (Verifier Agent)

Key Principles

1. Non-Negotiable Quality: Every code change must pass all applicable gates
2. Automated Enforcement: Gates are triggered automatically via hooks
3. Clear Feedback: Failures provide actionable error messages
4. Project-Aware: Commands adapt to detected project type and tooling
5. Fail-Fast, Fix-First: When any gate fails, work stops until resolved

Verification Hierarchy

Loid (Executor)          Alphonse (Verifier)
     |                         |
Quick sanity tests       Full verification gate
during implementation    before completion
     |                         |
     +----------> Handoff >----+

Gate Types

Pre-Commit Gates

Pre-Complete Gates

Security Gates

Triggered by changes to sensitive files or security-critical code:

Verification Commands

Quick Reference by Language

For complete command reference, see references/verification-commands.md.

Verification Process

Alphonse Verification Steps

1. Identify project type (Node.js, Python, Go, Rust, Java)
2. Run test suite with appropriate framework
3. Execute type checking if configured
4. Run linters if present
5. Attempt production build
6. Report structured results

Standard Output Format

## Verification Results

### Tests
- Status: [PASS | FAIL]
- Output: [Summary of test execution]

### Type Check
- Status: [PASS | FAIL | SKIPPED]
- Errors: [List of type errors if any]

### Lint
- Status: [PASS | FAIL | SKIPPED]
- Warnings: [Count and summary]

### Build
- Status: [PASS | FAIL | SKIPPED]
- Issues: [Build errors if any]

### Overall: [VERIFIED | FAILED]

Failure Handling

Failure Severity

Escalation Path

Alphonse Reports -> Loid Reviews
     |                   |
Simple Fix?         Complex Issue?
     |                   |
    YES                  NO
     |                   |
Loid Fixes      Escalate to Lawliet
     |                   |
Re-verify       Architecture Review

For detailed failure protocols, see references/failure-handling.md.

Best Practices

DO

• Run verification after every significant change
• Fix failures immediately
• Trust Alphonse's verdict
• Add tests for new features
• Run full suite before PR

DON'T

• Skip verification to save time
• Suppress type errors with any
• Disable lint rules without justification
• Commit with failing tests
• Use --no-verify flag
• Mark tasks complete without verification

Gate Selection Guide

Override Rules

Verification gates can ONLY be skipped when:

1. User explicitly requests skip - Must be documented
2. No code changes were made - Documentation-only tasks
3. Task is purely exploratory - No production impact

Override Documentation Required:

## Verification Override

Reason: [Explicit reason for skipping]
Requested by: [User or escalation source]
Risk Assessment: [Low/Medium/High]
Compensating Controls: [What will catch issues later]

Additional Resources

Reference Files

• references/verification-commands.md - Complete command reference
• references/project-detection.md - Project type detection details
• references/failure-handling.md - Failure handling protocols

Examples

• examples/verification-scenarios.md - Worked verification examples

Related Files

Related Skills

• task-classification: Determines when verification is required
• agent-behavior-constraints: Model routing and tool access

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