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

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?
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)

Requirements:

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

Agent delegation:

✅ Agent reports success → Check VCS diff → Verify changes → Report actual state
❌ Trust agent report

Why This Matters

From 24 failure memories:

• your human partner said "I don't believe you" - trust broken
• Undefined functions shipped - would crash
• Missing requirements shipped - incomplete features
• Time wasted on false completion → redirect → rework
• Violates: "Honesty is a core value. If you lie, you'll be replaced."

When To Apply

ALWAYS before:

• ANY variation of success/completion claims
• ANY expression of satisfaction
• ANY positive statement about work state
• Committing, PR creation, task completion
• Moving to next task
• Delegating to agents

Rule applies to:

• Exact phrases
• Paraphrases and synonyms
• Implications of success
• ANY communication suggesting completion/correctness

Fullstack Verification

When completing a fullstack feature cycle phase, run these additional checks:

Phase 2 (Schema) Verification

After schema changes via backend-schema:

# Verify Strapi responds
curl -s http://localhost:1337/api/<pluralName> | head -c 200

# Verify content-type exists in admin API
# (requires STRAPI_ADMIN_EMAIL and STRAPI_ADMIN_PASSWORD)

Expected: HTTP 200 with JSON data array.

Phase 3 (API Types) Verification

After generating API types via api-client-gen:

cd frontend && npx tsc --noEmit

Expected: exit 0, no type errors. Common issues:

• Missing imports between generated type files
• Media type not found (should be auto-generated)
• Relation target type not yet generated

Phase 4 (Pages) Verification

After building pages via frontend-page:

cd frontend && npx vite build

Expected: exit 0, production build succeeds.

Final Integration Verification

After all phases complete:

# 1. Backend health
curl -s http://localhost:1337/api/<pluralName> | python3 -c "import sys,json; d=json.load(sys.stdin); print(f'{len(d.get(\"data\",[]))} entries')"

# 2. Frontend build
cd frontend && npx vite build 2>&1 | tail -5

# 3. Type check
cd frontend && npx tsc --noEmit 2>&1 | tail -5

All three must pass before claiming completion.

Fullstack Checklist

Before marking a fullstack feature as complete, verify:

• Strapi dev server responds to API requests (200)
• All content types have descriptions on every field
• API types generated and committed (src/api/ files exist)
• TypeScript compilation passes (npx tsc --noEmit)
• Frontend builds without errors (npx vite build)
• Pages import from @/api/ (never hand-edit generated files)
• shadcn components in src/components/ui/ are not hand-edited
• Git checkpoints are committed at each phase boundary

The Bottom Line

No shortcuts for verification.

Run the command. Read the output. THEN claim the result.

This is non-negotiable.