verification-before-completion Checked

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

Verification Before Completion

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

Verification Before Completion

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 |

| "I'm tired" | Exhaustion ≠ excuse |

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

| "Different words so rule doesn't apply" | Spirit over letter |

Key Patterns

**Tests:**

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

**Regression tests (TDD Red-Green):**

✅ Write → Run (pass) → Revert fix → Run (MUST FAIL) → Restore → Run (pass)
❌ "I've written a regression test" (without red-green verification)

**Build:**

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