Skills › Superpowers › verification-before-completion

verification-before-completion

skill · 120 lines · MIT · skills/verification-before-completion/SKILL.md

The facts

Its 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

The description the agent reads to decide when to use it.

From its settingsline 3

When it starts

This skill is picked when the agent is about to assert that work is complete, fixed, or passing — typically right before committing, opening a PR, or reporting success — so it stops and runs the verifying command first.

Things a person might say (the model's guesses)

“Okay, that bug is fixed — go ahead and commit it.”
“I think everything's working now, can you open a PR?”
“Are the tests passing? Just tell me we're done.”

A model's summary of when it is used.

A model's reading

What leads to it

systematic-debugging calls this in Phase 4, before claiming the fix worked systematic-debugging, line 189
executing-plans requires this before claiming a task complete executing-plans, line 219

Other skills that hand off to this one, call it, require it or offer it instead, as a model read them.

A model's reading

Licence

MIT, from LICENSE

The terms its author shares it under, which let it be shown here.

From the repositorylicence text

The text

Names a skill

Open on GitHub

Most marks come from matching words in the file, so treat them as pointers.

1---

2name: verification-before-completion

3description: 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

4---

6# Verification Before Completion

Verification Before Completion

Raw lines 1 to 7

8## Overview

10**Core principle:** Evidence before claims, always.

12**Violating the letter of this rule is violating the spirit of this rule.**

Overview

Core principle: Evidence before claims, always.

Violating the letter of this rule is violating the spirit of this rule.

Raw lines 8 to 13

14## The Iron Law

16```

17NO COMPLETION CLAIMS WITHOUT FRESH VERIFICATION EVIDENCE

18```

20If you haven't run the verification command in this message, you cannot claim it passes.

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.

Raw lines 14 to 21

22## The Gate Function

24```

25BEFORE claiming any status or expressing satisfaction:

271. IDENTIFY: What command proves this claim?

282. RUN: Execute the FULL command (fresh, complete)

293. READ: Full output, check exit code, count failures

304. VERIFY: Does output confirm the claim?

31 - If NO: State actual status with evidence

32 - If YES: State claim WITH evidence

335. ONLY THEN: Make the claim

35Skip any step = lying, not verifying

36```

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

Raw lines 22 to 37

38## Common Failures

40| Claim | Requires | Not Sufficient |

41|-------|----------|----------------|

42| Tests pass | Test command output: 0 failures | Previous run, "should pass" |

43| Linter clean | Linter output: 0 errors | Partial check, extrapolation |

44| Build succeeds | Build command: exit 0 | Linter passing, logs look good |

45| Bug fixed | Test original symptom: passes | Code changed, assumed fixed |

46| Regression test works | Red-green cycle verified | Test passes once |

47| Agent completed | VCS diff shows changes | Agent reports "success" |

48| Requirements met | Line-by-line checklist | Tests passing |

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

Raw lines 38 to 49

50## Red Flags - STOP

52- Using "should", "probably", "seems to"

53- Expressing satisfaction before verification ("Great!", "Perfect!", "Done!", etc.)

54- About to commit/push/PR without verification

55- Trusting agent success reports

56- Relying on partial verification

57- Thinking "just this once"

58- Tired and wanting work over

59- **ANY wording implying success without having run verification**

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

Raw lines 50 to 60

61## Rationalization Prevention

63| Excuse | Reality |

64|--------|---------|

65| "Should work now" | RUN the verification |

66| "I'm confident" | Confidence ≠ evidence |

67| "Just this once" | No exceptions |

68| "Linter passed" | Linter ≠ compiler |

69| "Agent said success" | Verify independently |

70| "I'm tired" | Exhaustion ≠ excuse |

71| "Partial check is enough" | Partial proves nothing |

72| "Different words so rule doesn't apply" | Spirit over letter |

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

Raw lines 61 to 73

74## Key Patterns

76**Tests:**

77```

78✅ [Run test command] [See: 34/34 pass] "All tests pass"

79❌ "Should pass now" / "Looks correct"

80```

82**Regression tests (TDD Red-Green):**

83```

84✅ Write → Run (pass) → Revert fix → Run (MUST FAIL) → Restore → Run (pass)

85❌ "I've written a regression test" (without red-green verification)

86```

88**Build:**

89```

90✅ [Run build] [See: exit 0] "Build passes"

91❌ "Linter passed" (linter doesn't check compilation)

92```

94**Requirements:**

95```

96✅ Re-read plan → Create checklist → Verify each → Report gaps or completion

97❌ "Tests pass, phase complete"

98```

100**Agent delegation:**

101```

102✅ Agent reports success → Check VCS diff → Verify changes → Report actual state

103❌ Trust agent report

104```

105

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

Raw lines 74 to 105

Names a skill test-driven-development :82

106## When To Apply

107

108**ALWAYS before:**

109- ANY variation of success/completion claims

110- ANY expression of satisfaction

111- ANY positive statement about work state

112- Committing, PR creation, task completion

113- Moving to next task

114- Delegating to agents

115

116**Rule applies to:**

117- Exact phrases

118- Paraphrases and synonyms

119- Implications of success

120- ANY communication suggesting completion/correctness

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

Raw lines 106 to 120

From obra/superpowers at 2ce8aa1, 2026-10-21. Skills read by DeepSeek V4.1 Flash on 2026-11-04. Summary and techniques by Claude Opus 5.5 on 2026-11-06.