Verification Before Completion

---
name: verification-before-completion
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
---

# 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

## The Gate Function
BEFORE claiming any status:
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?
5. ONLY THEN: Make the claim

## Common Failures
- "Tests pass" → Requires test command output: 0 failures
- "Linter clean" → Linter output: 0 errors
- "Build succeeds" → Build command: exit 0
- "Bug fixed" → Test original symptom: passes

## Red Flags - STOP
Using "should", "probably", "seems to". Expressing satisfaction before verification. About to commit/push/PR without verification.

## Key Patterns
Tests: Run test command, see results. NOT "should pass now" or "looks correct".
Build: Run build, see exit 0. NOT "linter passed" (not compilation).

## The Bottom Line
No shortcuts for verification. Run the command. Read the output. THEN claim the result.