reflection-and-verification

name	reflection-and-verification
description	Use when generated code, plans, tests, prompts or architecture need critique, repair and verification before completion; especially for coding tasks requiring self-review, test-driven repair or quality gates.

Reflection and Verification

When to use

Use this skill after an initial implementation, plan or generated artefact exists and quality matters. Apply it to code generation, debugging, planning, documentation, prompts, tests and architecture proposals.

Reflection must not replace deterministic verification. Run tests, linters, type checks and static analysis wherever available.

Objective

Critique and repair artefacts using deterministic checks first, then bounded review loops.

Procedure

1. Produce an initial artefact.
2. Evaluate it against explicit criteria: correctness, completeness, security, maintainability, performance and instruction adherence.
3. Use deterministic checks first: tests, type checks, linters, formatters, schema validators.
4. Use LLM critique for gaps not covered by deterministic checks.
5. Apply targeted fixes.
6. Repeat until checks pass or a clear stopping condition is reached.

Coding guidance

• Keep critique separate from implementation.
• Do not rewrite working code wholesale when a targeted patch is sufficient.
• Record failed checks and fixes.
• Stop after a bounded number of repair cycles and report unresolved failures.

Related skills

• tdd-practice — executable verification first
• code-review-and-quality — human or agent review loop
• cognitive-bias-review — judgement distortion after checks pass
• logical-fallacy-review — invalid premises-to-conclusion chains
• apply-laws-of-ai — safety gates before claiming completion

References

• Reflexion: language agents with verbal reinforcement learning

Verification

• Acceptance criteria are explicit.
• Tests or validation checks were run.
• Failures were repaired or reported.
• Final answer includes residual risks.
• No unverified claim of success is made.