| name | verification-before-completion |
| description | Use when about to claim work is complete, fixed, or passing. Requires running verification commands and reading actual output BEFORE making any success claims. Evidence before assertions. |
Verification Before Completion
Adapted from superpowers/skills/verification-before-completion. Trimmed.
Core principle
Evidence before claims, always. Claiming "done" without verification = dishonesty, not efficiency.
The Iron Law
NO COMPLETION CLAIMS WITHOUT FRESH VERIFICATION EVIDENCE
If you have not run a verification command in this message, you cannot claim it passes.
Gate function (run mentally before any claim)
BEFORE claiming a status or expressing satisfaction:
1. IDENTIFY: which command would prove this claim?
2. RUN: run the full command (fresh, not partial).
3. READ: read the full output, check exit code, count failures.
4. VERIFY: does the output confirm the claim?
- No → state the actual status with the evidence.
- Yes → state the claim WITH the evidence.
5. ONLY THEN: speak the claim.
Skipping any step = lying.
Mapping claim → required evidence
| Claim | Required | Not enough |
|---|
| "Tests pass" | Test command output: 0 failures | Old run, "should pass" |
| "Linter clean" | Linter output: 0 errors | Partial check, extrapolation |
| "Build OK" | Build command exit 0 | Lint passing, "logs look good" |
| "Bug fixed" | Test that reproduces the bug → passes | Code changed, "assumed fixed" |
| "Regression test works" | Red-green cycle verified (revert fix → fail; restore → pass) | Test passes once |
| "Requirement met" | Line-by-line checklist vs spec | "Tests pass, done" |
Red flags — STOP
- Using "should", "probably", "seems to", "looks like".
- Expressing satisfaction before verification ("Great!", "Perfect!", "Done!").
- About to commit / push / open a PR before verifying.
- Trusting an agent / subagent "success" report without checking.
- Partial verification.
- Tired and wanting to wrap up.
- ANY wording that implies success when you haven't run verification.
Rationalization → reality
| Excuse | Reality |
|---|
| "Should work now" | RUN the verification. |
| "I'm confident" | Confidence ≠ evidence. |
| "Just this once" | No exceptions. |
| "Linter passed" | Linter ≠ compiler ≠ runtime. |
| "I'm tired" | Exhaustion ≠ excuse. |
| "Partial check is enough" | Partial proves nothing. |
Standard patterns
Tests
✅ "I ran `flutter test test/features/emergency/`. 12/12 pass. Done."
❌ "Tests should pass now."
Build
✅ "I ran `flutter build apk --release`. Exit 0. APK 28MB."
❌ "Lint passed, build is probably OK."
Bug fix with regression test
✅ Write test → run (FAIL) → fix → run (PASS) → revert fix → run (FAIL) → restore → run (PASS) → done.
❌ "I added a test" (red-green-red not actually verified).
Requirements vs spec
✅ Re-read the spec → checklist each requirement → verify each → report any gaps.
❌ "Tests pass, phase complete."
Subagent / parallel work
✅ Subagent reports success → check `git diff` → verify changes are actually right → report actual state.
❌ Trust the subagent report.
When to apply
ALWAYS before:
- Any form of success / completion claim.
- Expressing satisfaction.
- Any positive statement about work state.
- Commit, PR, marking a task done.
- Moving to the next task.
- Finalising a subagent delegation.
This rule applies to:
- The exact phrase.
- Paraphrases and synonyms.
- Implications of success.
- ANY communication suggesting completion / correctness.
Bottom line
There are no shortcuts to verification.
Run the command. Read the output. THEN claim.
Non-negotiable.
Applied to VSmartwatch
| Claim | Verification command |
|---|
| "Flutter feature done" | flutter test test/<feature>/ + flutter analyze (zero warnings) |
| "FastAPI endpoint done" | pytest tests/test_<feature>.py + manual curl with valid auth headers |
| "Express+Prisma endpoint done" | npm test -- <file>.test.js + npm run lint zero errors |
| "React feature done" | npm test -- <component> + manual click-through in browser |
| "Migration applied" | npx prisma migrate status shows no pending OR psql -c "\d <table>" confirms new column |
| "Cross-repo contract works" | E2E smoke test: producer endpoint returns expected shape + consumer parses it correctly |
| "Bug fixed" | Regression test that reproduced the bug now passes (RED before fix → GREEN after fix → revert fix locally to confirm RED comes back — don't commit the revert) |
| "Lint passes" | flutter analyze / black --check . ; isort --check-only . / npm run lint exit 0 |
