| name | independent-verify |
| description | Use when work is built and before delivering — an independent reviewer (not the builder) checks each stage against the frozen acceptance table and issues a per-stage verdict. Metric claims get a stricter hand-recompute gate. Part of meta-workflow (Step ④); uses superpowers requesting-code-review. This is where most of the discipline lives. |
Step ④ — Verify "done AND good enough", independently
Why this exists: the builder cannot be the verifier. Their self-check already happened in
Step ③; reusing it as the gate is exactly the self-grading failure the whole loop exists to stop.
This is not about distrust of a person — it's structural. In the source system's own logs, a
detector self-reported 1.00 recall; an independent test measured 0.17. Writing the code,
testing it, and declaring the result form one unbroken chain of confirmation bias.
Do
An independent reviewer (≠ the builder) checks each stage against the frozen acceptance
table and issues a per-stage verdict — done AND good-enough. All hard gates pass → deliver.
Any fail → Step ⑤ (remediation-loop).
The reviewer must have the frozen table in hand — verifying from the builder's self-narration
does not count.
The metric self-review ban (the crown jewel)
For any measurable claim — recall, precision, cost, coverage, latency, accuracy — the normal
verdict is not enough. The reviewer must:
- Not read the implementation first (review against the criteria / goal, not the code).
- Recompute ≥3 samples by hand.
- Have before/after data points to compare.
- For a claimed metric: cite sample provenance (≥50 independent + ≥10 adversarial), with
thresholds justified by an external basis.
See references/hard-gates.md for the full truth table of when each gate fires.
Independence
Reviewer ≠ builder. A self-check from Step ③ can never stand in for Step ④. For metric-validity
claims, use the stricter hand-recompute path above; for ordinary high-risk work, an independent
reviewer reading the frozen table is enough.
Relationship to superpowers
superpowers requesting-code-review and verification-before-completion give you the
mechanics (how to run the review, how to gate completion on evidence). This skill adds what they
don't carry: the per-stage verdict against a frozen table and the metric self-review ban.
