faysilalshareef/verification-gate

Verification Gate — Evidence Before Claims

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.

Violating the letter of this rule is violating the spirit of this rule.

The Gate

BEFORE claiming any status or expressing satisfaction:

1. IDENTIFY  → What command proves this claim?
2. RUN       → Execute the FULL command (fresh, not cached)
3. READ      → Full output — check exit code, count failures
4. VERIFY    → Does the output confirm the claim?
   YES → State the claim WITH the evidence
   NO  → State actual status with evidence
5. ONLY THEN → Make the claim

Skip any step = false claim, not efficiency.

.NET Verification Commands

| Claim | Required Command | Not Sufficient | |-------|-----------------|----------------| | "Build succeeds" | dotnet build exit 0 | "Linter passed", "code looks right" | | "Tests pass" | dotnet test with 0 failures | Previous run, "should pass" | | "No warnings" | dotnet build -warnaserror exit 0 | Build passing (warnings hidden) | | "Lint clean" | ruff check or analyzer output: 0 errors | Partial check, extrapolation | | "Bug fixed" | Test reproducing the original symptom passes | "Code changed, assumed fixed" | | "Migration works" | dotnet ef database update exit 0 | "Schema looks correct" | | "Endpoint works" | HTTP request + response validation | "Controller compiles" | | "Requirements met" | Line-by-line checklist against spec | "Tests passing" |

Forbidden Phrases

These phrases are never acceptable without preceding verification output:

• "Should work now"
• "Should pass"
• "Looks correct"
• "Seems fine"
• "That should fix it"
• "I'm confident this works"
• "Done!"
• "Perfect!"
• "Great, that's complete"
• Any variation implying success without evidence

Rationalization Table

| Excuse | Reality | |--------|---------| | "Should work now" | RUN the verification | | "I'm confident" | Confidence is not evidence | | "Just this once" | No exceptions | | "Linter passed" | Linter does not check compilation | | "Build passed" | Build does not check test logic | | "Tests passed last time" | Last time is not this time | | "I only changed one line" | One line can break everything | | "The code is simple" | Simple code still needs verification | | "I'm running out of context" | Verification is never optional | | "Partial check is enough" | Partial proves nothing about the whole | | "Different words so rule doesn't apply" | Spirit over letter, always |

Red Flags — STOP

If you catch yourself:

• Using "should", "probably", "seems to", "likely"
• Expressing satisfaction before running commands
• About to commit or push without verification
• About to mark a task complete without evidence
• Trusting a subagent's success report without checking
• Relying on a previous verification run
• Thinking "just this once"
• ANY wording implying success without having run verification

All of these mean: STOP. Run the command. Read the output. Then speak.

Multi-Step Verification

When implementation touches multiple areas, verify each:

1. dotnet build         → Compiles?
2. dotnet test          → All green?
3. Review test output   → Expected count? No skipped?
4. Check spec           → Each requirement has evidence?

Do NOT bundle: "build and tests pass" — run each, report each.

After Agent Delegation

When a subagent reports success:

1. Check the actual diff (git diff)
2. Run dotnet build yourself
3. Run dotnet test yourself
4. THEN report the status

Agent reports are claims. Claims need verification.

The Bottom Line

No shortcuts. Run the command. Read the output. THEN claim the result.