adrozdenko/soleri-verification-before-completion

Verification Before Completion

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 message, you cannot claim it passes.

The Gate Function

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?
   - NO → State actual status with evidence
   - YES → State claim WITH evidence
5. AGENT CHECK: Run system diagnostics
6. ONLY THEN: Make the claim

Check Loop Status

If this task is part of a tracked loop:

salvador_core op:loop_status

Report loop iteration status before claiming completion.

Agent System Checks

After passing verification commands:

• salvador_core op:admin_health — catches vault corruption, stale caches
• salvador_core op:admin_diagnostic — module status, database integrity, config validity
• salvador_core op:admin_vault_analytics — knowledge quality metrics

If any check reports problems, address before claiming completion.

Common Failures

| Claim | Requires | Not Sufficient | | ---------------- | ----------------------- | ----------------------------- | | Tests pass | Test output: 0 failures | Previous run, "should pass" | | Build succeeds | Build command: exit 0 | Linter passing | | Bug fixed | Original symptom passes | "Code changed, assumed fixed" | | Requirements met | Line-by-line checklist | Tests passing alone |

Red Flags — STOP

• Using "should", "probably", "seems to"
• Expressing satisfaction before verification
• About to commit/push/PR without verification
• Relying on partial verification

| 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 |

After Verification

Capture session summary: salvador_core op:session_capture params: { summary: "<what was accomplished>" }

Common Mistakes

• Claiming "tests pass" based on a previous run
• Trusting agent success reports without independent verification
• Running linter but not build (linter does not check compilation)
• Skipping the red-green cycle for regression tests

Rationalization Prevention

Do NOT rationalize away failures. If a check fails, it fails. Period.

• HARD-GATE: All verification commands must pass (exit 0, 0 failures) before claiming task complete.
• HARD-GATE: Agent system checks (admin_health, admin_diagnostic) must report no problems before completion.
• Do not say "tests probably pass" -- run them and read the output.
• Do not say "this is a minor issue" to skip a failing check.
• Do not say "it worked last time" -- stale results are not evidence.
• Do not downgrade a failure to a warning to avoid blocking completion.
• If a check fails and you cannot fix it, report the failure honestly. Never hide it.

Quick Reference

| Op | When to Use | | ----------------------- | ----------------------------------- | | loop_status | Check loop iteration status | | admin_health | Quick system health check | | admin_diagnostic | Comprehensive diagnostic | | admin_vault_analytics | Knowledge quality metrics | | session_capture | Persist verified completion context |