Verification Before Completion

Verification Before Completion

Use this skill whenever you are about to say work is done.

The goal is to prevent premature completion reports by making validation explicit.

Core workflow

1. Inspect the project context first

   • Read project instructions, task requirements, and any local guidance files.
   • Identify expected validation commands from files such as README.md, package.json, pyproject.toml, Makefile, CI configs, or agent instructions.

2. Create a validation plan

   • List the checks that are relevant to the change.
   • Start with the smallest high-signal checks for the changed area.
   • Run broader project validation before completion when it is available and practical.

3. Run the checks

   • Execute the relevant commands.
   • Prefer deterministic validation such as tests, type-checking, linting, builds, or targeted smoke checks.
   • If a manual verification step is required, describe exactly what was checked.

4. Interpret the results carefully

   • Distinguish between:
     • checks that passed
     • checks that failed because of the current change
     • pre-existing failures or unrelated environment issues
   • Do not claim success if required validation was skipped or failed.

5. Report completion with evidence

   • Summarize what was validated.
   • Call out any unverified assumptions, skipped steps, flaky results, or environment limitations.
   • If something could not be verified, state that clearly and explain why.

Validation priorities

Prefer this order when appropriate:

1. targeted checks for the changed code path
2. project-required quality gates
3. broader regression checks
4. manual smoke tests or user-facing verification

Rules

• Never say a task is fully complete without checking whether validation is expected.
• Never hide failing checks.
• Never treat “I changed the code” as equivalent to “it works”.
• If validation is expensive or blocked, say what remains and what the user should run next.
• If the repository includes explicit required commands, run those before finishing unless the user told you not to.

References

• Command discovery guide
• Completion report checklist