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Skill

verification-before-completion

by obra

AI Summary

This booster enforces a disciplined verification workflow that prevents false success claims by requiring developers to run and confirm verification commands before marking work complete. It's essential for any development team wanting to eliminate premature PRs and false positives.

Install

Copy this and paste it into Claude Code, Cursor, or any AI assistant:

I want to install the "verification-before-completion" skill in my project.

Please run this command in my terminal:
# Install skill into your project
mkdir -p .claude/skills/verification-before-completion && curl --retry 3 --retry-delay 2 --retry-all-errors -o .claude/skills/verification-before-completion/SKILL.md "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/obra/superpowers/main/skills/verification-before-completion/SKILL.md"

Then restart Claude Code (or reload the window in Cursor) so the skill is picked up.

Description

Use when about to claim work is complete, fixed, or passing, before committing or creating PRs - requires running verification commands and confirming output before making any success claims; evidence before assertions always

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.

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

` BEFORE claiming any status or expressing satisfaction: • 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 `

Common Failures

| 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 |

Discussion

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Health Signals

MaintenanceCommitted 13d ago
Active
Adoption1K+ stars on GitHub
162.8k ★ · Popular
DocsREADME + description
Well-documented

GitHub Signals

Stars162.8k
Forks14.2k
Issues306
Updated13d ago
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MIT License

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Works With

Claude Code