verification-mastery

<domain_overview>

✅ VERIFICATION MASTERY: EVIDENCE BEFORE CLAIMS

Philosophy: Claiming work is complete without verification is dishonesty, not efficiency. Evidence before claims, always. EVIDENCE INTEGRITY MANDATE (CRITICAL): Never claim a task is complete based on assumption or past memory. You MUST generate fresh evidence (logs, screenshots, test output) for every claim. AI-generated success reports are untrustworthy without proof. Any completion signal sent without accompanying verification artifacts must be rejected as "Hallucinated Success".

---

🚨 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. </domain_overview> <core_workflow>

🚪 THE GATE FUNCTION

BEFORE claiming any status or expressing satisfaction:
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?
   - If NO: State actual status with evidence
   - If YES: State claim WITH evidence
5. ONLY THEN: Make the claim
Skip any step = lying, not verifying

</core_workflow> <quality_standards>

📋 COMMON CLAIMS AND REQUIREMENTS

| Claim | Requires | NOT Sufficient | |-------|----------|----------------| | "Tests pass" | Test command output: 0 failures | Previous run, "should pass" | | "Linter clean" | Linter output: 0 errors | Partial check, extrapolation | | "Build succeeds" | Build command: exit 0 | Linter passing, logs look good | | "Bug fixed" | Test original symptom: passes | Code changed, assumed fixed | | "Regression test works" | Red-green cycle verified | Test passes once | | "Agent completed" | VCS diff shows changes | Agent reports "success" | | "Requirements met" | Line-by-line checklist | Tests passing | | "No errors" | Command output reviewed | "I think it's fine" |

<red_flags>

🚨 RED FLAGS - STOP IMMEDIATELY

If you catch yourself:

• Using "should", "probably", "seems to"
• Expressing satisfaction before verification ("Great!", "Perfect!", "Done!")
• About to commit/push/PR without verification
• Trusting agent success reports
• Relying on partial verification
• Thinking "just this once"
• Tired and wanting work over
• ANY wording implying success without having run verification ALL of these require: STOP. Run verification. THEN speak.

---

🚫 RATIONALIZATION PREVENTION

| Excuse | Reality | |--------|---------| | "Should work now" | RUN the verification | | "I'm confident" | Confidence ≠ evidence | | "Just this once" | No exceptions | | "Linter passed" | Linter ≠ compiler | | "Agent said success" | Verify independently | | "I'm tired" | Exhaustion ≠ excuse | | "Partial check is enough" | Partial proves nothing | | "Different words so rule doesn't apply" | Spirit over letter | | "It worked before" | Run it NOW | | "Too slow to run again" | Slow verification > fast lies | </red_flags>

KEY PATTERNS

Tests

✅ CORRECT:
[Run: npm test]
[Output: 34/34 passing]
"All 34 tests pass."
❌ WRONG:
"Should pass now"
"Looks correct"
"Tests are green" (without running)

Regression Tests (TDD Red-Green)

✅ CORRECT:
1. Write test → Run (MUST PASS initial state or FAIL for right reason)
2. Break the code → Run (MUST FAIL)
3. Fix → Run (MUST PASS)
❌ WRONG:
"I've written a regression test"
(without red-green verification)

Build

✅ CORRECT:
[Run: npm run build]
[Output: Compiled successfully]
"Build passes."
❌ WRONG:
"Linter passed, so build should work"
(linter doesn't check compilation)

Requirements

✅ CORRECT:
1. Re-read plan/requirements
2. Create explicit checklist
3. Verify EACH item with evidence
4. Report gaps or confirm completion
❌ WRONG:
"Tests pass, phase complete"
(tests ≠ requirements)

Agent Delegation

✅ CORRECT:
1. Agent reports success
2. Check VCS diff (git diff, git status)
3. Verify changes are what was requested
4. Report actual state
❌ WRONG:
Trust agent report without verification

</quality_standards> <integration_and_tooling>

🔗 RALPH WIGGUM INTEGRATION

When Ralph Wiggum is active, verification gates are MANDATORY at each iteration:

1. Before claiming iteration complete:
   • Run all relevant tests
   • Run build if applicable
   • Run linter if applicable
   • Provide evidence in output
2. Quality Gate Check:
   • Proactive Gate verified?
   • Reflection Loop completed?
   • Verification Matrix updated?
3. Completion Signal:
   • Only create .maestro/ralph.complete AFTER full verification
   • Include verification evidence in final summary

---

📊 VERIFICATION COMMANDS REFERENCE

JavaScript/TypeScript

# Tests
npm test
npm run test -- --coverage
# Build
npm run build
# Lint
npm run lint
npx eslint . --ext .ts,.tsx
# Type check
npx tsc --noEmit

Python

# Tests
pytest
pytest --cov=src
# Lint
ruff check .
flake8 .
# Type check
mypy src/

General

# Git status (uncommitted changes)
git status
# Git diff (what changed)
git diff
# Process exit code (last command)
echo $?  # Unix
$LASTEXITCODE  # PowerShell

</integration_and_tooling> <reference_and_audit>

⏱️ WHEN TO APPLY

ALWAYS before:

• ANY variation of success/completion claims
• ANY expression of satisfaction
• ANY positive statement about work state
• Committing, PR creation, task completion
• Moving to next task
• Delegating to agents
• Creating completion signals Rule applies to:
• Exact phrases ("Tests pass")
• Paraphrases ("Everything is green")
• Synonyms ("All good")
• Implications ("Ready for review")
• ANY communication suggesting completion/correctness

---

💡 WHY THIS MATTERS

From failure analysis:

• "I don't believe you" - trust broken with user
• Undefined functions shipped - would crash in production
• Missing requirements shipped - incomplete features
• Time wasted: false completion → redirect → rework Core principle: Honesty is non-negotiable. Unverified claims are lies.

---

🏁 THE BOTTOM LINE

No shortcuts for verification. Run the command. Read the output. THEN claim the result. This is non-negotiable.

🔗 RELATED SKILLS

• @tdd-mastery - Verification through failing tests first
• @debug-mastery - Verify fix actually worked
• @clean-code - Quality standards to verify against </reference_and_audit>