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.

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? Tip: Use scripts/run-tests for auto-detected test execution.
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

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!")

• About to commit/push/PR without verification

• Trusting agent success reports

• Relying on partial verification

• ANY wording implying success without having run verification

The Bottom Line

No shortcuts for verification. Run the command. Read the output. THEN claim the result. Non-negotiable.

For detailed verification patterns with examples and rationalization table, see references/patterns-and-rationalizations.md.