About

Imported from bobmatnyc/claude-mpm-skills (universal/debugging/verification-before-completion/SKILL.md) via skills.sh. Install upstream with npx skills add bobmatnyc/claude-mpm-skills --skill verification-before-completion. Copyright stays with the author (MIT).

Verification Before Completion

Name: verification-before-completion
Author: bobmatnyc

Overview

Claiming work is complete without verification is dishonesty, not efficiency.

Core principle: Evidence before claims, always.

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

This skill enforces mandatory verification before ANY completion claim, preventing false positives, broken builds, and trust violations.

When to Use This Skill

Activate ALWAYS before claiming:

Success, completion, or satisfaction ("Done!", "Fixed!", "Great!")
Tests pass, linter clean, build succeeds
Committing, pushing, creating PRs
Marking tasks complete or delegating to agents

Use this ESPECIALLY when:

Under time pressure or tired
"Quick fix" seems obvious or confidence is high
Agent reports success or tests "should" pass

The Iron Law

NO COMPLETION CLAIMS WITHOUT FRESH VERIFICATION EVIDENCE

Without running the verification command in this message, claiming success is not allowed.

Core Principles

Evidence Required: Every claim needs supporting evidence
Fresh Verification: Must verify now, not rely on previous runs
Complete Verification: Full command, not partial checks
Honest Reporting: Report actual state, not hoped-for state

Quick Start

The five-step gate function:

IDENTIFY: What command proves this claim?
RUN: Execute the FULL command (fresh, complete)
READ: Full output, check exit code, count failures
VERIFY: Does output confirm the claim?
- If NO: State actual status with evidence
- If YES: State claim WITH evidence
ONLY THEN: Make the claim

Skip any step = lying, not verifying.

Key Patterns

Correct Pattern:

✅ [Run pytest] [Output: 34/34 passed] "All tests pass"

Incorrect Patterns:

❌ "Should pass now"
❌ "Looks correct"
❌ "Tests were passing"
❌ "I'm confident it works"

Red Flags - STOP Immediately

STOP when:

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

ALL of these mean: STOP. Run verification first.

Why This Matters

Statistics from real-world failures:

Verification cost: 2 minutes
Recovery cost: 120+ minutes (60x more expensive)
40% of unverified "complete" claims required rework

Core violation: "Lying leads to replacement"

Navigation

For detailed information:

Gate Function: Complete five-step verification process with decision trees
Verification Patterns: Correct verification patterns for tests, builds, deployments, and more
Red Flags and Failures: Common failure modes, red flags, and real-world examples with time/cost data
Integration and Workflows: Integration with other skills, CI/CD patterns, and agent delegation workflows

The Bottom Line

No shortcuts for verification.

Run the command. Read the output. THEN claim the result.

This is non-negotiable.

Use it

Copy one of these into your project. Installing also returns the manifest and these snippets.

yaml

targets:
  - https://api.opensmartroute.ai/api/v1/registry/bobmatnyc-claude-mpm-skills-verification-before-completion/manifest   # or paste the manifest below

Manifest

An Open Capability Manifest: the router reads it to know what this does, what it costs and when to pick it.

bobmatnyc-claude-mpm-skills-verification-before-completion.ocm.jsonjson

{
  "ocm": "1",
  "id": "bobmatnyc-claude-mpm-skills-verification-before-completion",
  "kind": "skill",
  "name": "verification-before-completion",
  "description": "Run verification commands and confirm output before claiming success",
  "publisher": "bobmatnyc",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "capabilities": {
    "domains": [
      "general"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "skill-md",
      "verification",
      "quality-assurance",
      "honesty",
      "evidence",
      "skills-sh"
    ],
    "languages": [
      "en"
    ]
  },
  "quality_prior": 0.6,
  "examples": [
    "Run verification commands and confirm output before claiming success"
  ],
  "primary": false,
  "metadata": {
    "source": {
      "provider": "skills.sh",
      "repository": "https://github.com/bobmatnyc/claude-mpm-skills",
      "path": "universal/debugging/verification-before-completion/SKILL.md",
      "ref": "HEAD",
      "url": "https://www.skills.sh/bobmatnyc/claude-mpm-skills/verification-before-completion",
      "key": "bobmatnyc/claude-mpm-skills/universal/debugging/verification-before-completion/SKILL.md"
    },
    "license": "MIT"
  },
  "instructions": "# Verification Before Completion\n\n## Overview\n\nClaiming work is complete without verification is dishonesty, not efficiency.\n\n**Core principle:** Evidence before claims, always.\n\n**Violating the letter of this rule is violating the spirit of this rule.**\n\nThis skill enforces mandatory verification before ANY completion claim, preventing false positives, broken builds, and trust violations.\n\n## When to Use This Skill\n\nActivate ALWAYS before claiming:\n- Success, completion, or satisfaction (\"Done!\", \"Fixed!\", \"Great!\")\n- Tests pass, linter clean, build succeeds\n- Committing, pushing, creating PR",
  "cost": {
    "context_tokens": 796
  }
}

Fetch it by URL: GET /api/v1/registry/bobmatnyc-claude-mpm-skills-verification-before-completion/manifest?version=1.0.0

Reviews

Star ratings from people who tried it. One review per account; edit yours any time.

No reviews yet. Install it, try it, and be the first to rate it.