Verify Work

Goal: never tell the user something works without having watched it work.

Run this before every "Done" report. "It should work" is not a verification.

Checklist

1. Run the tests. The relevant test suite actually executed, actually green — in this session, after the last change. A test run from before your final edit proves nothing.

2. Run the thing. Where possible, exercise the changed behavior for real: call the endpoint, run the command, hit the code path. One real execution beats ten confident explanations.

3. Read the full diff.

   • Every changed line is intentional and belongs to this task.
   • No accidental behavior changes, no unrelated "improvements".
   • No leftover debug output, commented-out code, or TODO placeholders.

4. Check the tests themselves. No test was weakened, skipped, or deleted to get to green. If one was — with approval — it is mentioned in the report.

5. Check the claims. Everything you are about to tell the user is something you observed, not something you infer. Anything unverified is reported as unverified: "not tested: X" is honest; silence is not.

6. Second opinion (L2/L3). If an advisor/reviewer model is available, have it review the result before you present it. If not, re-read the diff once more with fresh eyes on the riskiest part.

Then report

Done:     <one sentence>
Verified: <what you ran and what you observed>
Recorded: <journal file path>

If any check failed, the task is not done — say what failed and what you are doing about it instead.