/verification-mastery

name: verification-mastery
description: Evidence before claims, always. No completion claims without fresh verification. The final gate before declaring success.

<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 fail