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

Related skills: Follow up with /skill:requesting-code-review before merging. Done? /skill:finishing-a-development-branch.

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.

If a tool result contains a ⚠️ workflow warning, stop immediately and address it before continuing.

Boundaries

• Run verification commands: yes
• Read code and output: yes
• Edit source code: no

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

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

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 without checking outputs
• Relying on partial verification
• Thinking "just this once"
• Tired and wanting work over
• ANY wording implying success without fresh evidence

Key Patterns

Tests:

✅ Run tests + confirm 0 failures before saying "tests pass"
❌ "Should pass now" / "Looks correct"

Regression tests (TDD Red-Green):

✅ Verify red → green sequence before claiming fix durability
❌ "I added a regression test" (without proving red-green)

Build:

✅ Run build command + confirm exit 0
❌ "Linter passed" (linter ≠ build)

Requirements:

✅ Check requirements one-by-one, report verified status
❌ "Tests pass, so everything is complete"

Agent delegation:

✅ Verify agent output + diffs + commands yourself
❌ Trust "agent says success"

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 and paraphrases
• Implications of success
• ANY communication suggesting completion/correctness

Enforcement

The workflow-monitor extension monitors git commit, git push, and gh pr create. If you haven't run a passing test suite since your last source file edit, a warning is injected into the tool result. The warning clears automatically after a fresh passing test run.

When all verification passes, mark the verify phase complete: call plan_tracker with {action: "update", status: "complete"} for the current phase.