Verification Before Completion

---
name: verification-before-completion
description: "Use when about to claim work is complete, fixed, or passing, before committing or creating PRs - requires running verification commands and confirming output before making any success claims; evidence before assertions always"
version: 5.0.0
last-updated: 2026-09-13
skills:
  - clean-code
  - tdd-workflow
tools: Read, Grep, Glob, Bash, Edit, Write
scripts-binding:
  - .agent/scripts/verify_all.js
  - .agent/scripts/checklist.js
  - .agent/scripts/lint_runner.js
---

# Verification Before Completion

---

## 🛠️ Technical Architecture & Reference Recipes

## Overview

**Core principle:** Evidence before claims, always.

**Violating the letter of this rule is violating the spirit of this rule.**

## 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                  |

## 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
- Relying on partial verification
- Thinking "just this once"
- Tired and wanting work over
- **ANY wording implying success without having run verification**

## 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   |
| "Partial check is enough" | Partial proves nothing |

## Key Patterns

**Tests:**

```
✅ [Run test command] [See: 34/34 pass] "All tests pass"
❌ "Should pass now" / "Looks correct"
```

**Build:**

```
✅ [Run build] [See: exit 0] "Build passes"
❌ "Linter passed" (linter doesn't check compilation)
```

**Requirements:**

```
✅ Re-read plan → Create checklist → Verify each → Report gaps or completion
❌ "Tests pass, phase complete"
```