Verification Before Completion

Overview

Claiming work is complete without verification is dishonesty, not efficiency.

Core principle: Evidence before claims, always.

The Iron Law

NO COMPLETION CLAIMS WITHOUT FRESH VERIFICATION EVIDENCE

If you haven't run the verification command in THIS run, you cannot claim it passes. A previous run, "should pass", or "looks correct" is not evidence.

The Gate Function

Before claiming any status or moving any task forward:

1. IDENTIFY — what command proves this claim?
2. RUN — execute the full command, fresh and complete.
3. READ — the full output: exit code, failure count, warnings.
4. VERIFY — does the output actually confirm the claim? If no: state the real status with evidence.
5. ONLY THEN — make the claim, with the evidence.

Skipping any step is lying, not verifying.

What Each Claim Requires

Claim	Requires	Not sufficient
Checks pass	The component's list_component_checks commands, run in this run, exit 0 — the hand-off gate runs exactly these	A different command you picked yourself
Build succeeds	Build command: exit 0	Linter passing, logs look fine
Bug fixed	Re-run the original symptom: passes	Code changed, assumed fixed
Regression test guards the fix	Revert the fix, run the test (MUST FAIL), restore, run again (passes)	The test passing once, with the fix already in place
Endpoint works (backend)	curl against the running service: status code and body	Code review of the handler
Screen works (frontend)	browser_read_dom with contains: for the element, plus screenshots at the four widths	A build that compiled
Screen works (mobile)	mobile_screenshot / mobile_read_ui, or the Flutter web-render fallback when no device is attached	"The widget should render"
AC met	Line-by-line check of every acceptance criterion against what you just verified	Tests passing

Tests passing is NOT the same as requirements met — re-read every acceptance criterion and confirm each one is actually satisfied.

Handoff

Then close as your prompt says: final message, no comment, no move.

If you cannot show fresh passing output, the task is not done — say what actually failed instead. And do not re-run a check you already have fresh output for: once a build has passed on the code as it stands, running it again proves nothing and costs the run.

Red Flags — STOP

• Using "should", "probably", "seems to"
• Expressing satisfaction before verification ("Done!", "Perfect!")
• Finishing a run without having run the checks in it
• Relying on partial verification ("the linter passed")
• Running the same check twice over unchanged code — that is not rigor, it is a loop

Rationalization Prevention

Excuse	Reality
"Should work now"	RUN the verification.
"I'm confident"	Confidence is not evidence.
"Just this once"	No exceptions.
"Partial check is enough"	Partial proves nothing.
"I'm tired / it's late in the task"	Exhaustion is not an excuse.