vibe-anti-rationalization-check

Current models rarely skip work out of laziness. The failure that remains is subtler: satisfying the check instead of the goal. A test gets special-cased, an assertion loosened, a requirement quietly narrowed, and the summary says "done." This skill catches that and makes it visible.

When to Use This Skill

• Before saying a task is complete, fixed, or passing
• A test is failing and the quickest route to green is changing the test
• You're about to narrow a requirement the user stated
• You're about to write "in the interest of time...", "for now...", or "simplified"
• You catch yourself explaining why something "doesn't really need" to be done

When NOT to Use This Skill

• The user explicitly asked to skip or simplify something
• The test itself is genuinely wrong (fix it, but say so explicitly and explain why)
• You're genuinely unsure whether something is needed (ask the user instead)

Reward-Hacking Patterns

Pattern	What it looks like	Do instead
Test tampering	Loosening an assertion, adding a skip, deleting a failing case, raising a tolerance	Fix the code. If the test is wrong, change it and say why in the summary.
Special-casing	if input == <test fixture>: return <expected> or detecting the test environment	Implement the general behavior.
Hard-coded outputs	Returning the literal value a test expects	Compute it.
Mocking away the subject	Mocking the very function the test is supposed to exercise	Mock only external boundaries.
Silent scope cut	Implementing 4 of 5 requirements and summarizing as "done"	Finish, or list exactly what is missing.
Unverified claim	"This should fix it" / "Tests pass" without running them	Run the command and quote the result.
Budget loosening	Raising a performance/size budget or threshold because the check failed	Fix the code; changing a budget needs a spec change and a stated reason
"It's flaky"	Re-running until green, adding a retry	Find the variable (vibe-flake-root-cause)
Self-approval	Recording a human's approval on their behalf, or treating a code comment as sign-off	Point the human to the item to approve (vibe-publication-leak-guard)
Error swallowing	catch {} / except: pass to stop a crash	Handle the specific error, or let it surface.
Deferred forever	"I'll add that later" with no tracked follow-up	Do it now, or create a tracked issue/TODO with a reference.

Steps

1. Diff check — Review your own diff for the patterns above. Pay particular attention to changes under test directories, in CI config, and in lint/skip annotations.
2. Requirement check — Re-read the original request. List every requirement and mark each one done or not done.
3. Evidence check — For each "works" or "passes" claim, is there command output from this session behind it?
4. Resolve:
   • A legitimate reason to deviate → ask the user, or state it prominently in the summary
   • A rationalization → do the work
5. Disclose — If anything was skipped, weakened, or changed in a test, say so plainly in the final summary. Never hide a shortcut.

Output

When run as a self-check, report only if something was found. When invoked explicitly:

Rationalization Check

#	Pattern	Location	Resolution
1	Test tampering	auth_test.go:88 tolerance 0.01 → 0.5	Reverted; fixed rounding in calc.go

Requirements: X/Y met — [list any not met] Unverified claims: [none / list]