Verification Skill

Evidence before claims, always. NO COMPLETION CLAIMS WITHOUT FRESH VERIFICATION.

Iron Law

NO COMPLETION CLAIMS WITHOUT FRESH VERIFICATION EVIDENCE. If you have not run the verification command in the current session, you cannot claim it passes. Prior knowledge, assumptions, and memory of previous runs do not count. Only fresh output from the current session constitutes evidence.

The Five-Step Gate

Every completion claim must pass through this gate:

1. Identify — Determine which command proves your claim. "Tests pass" requires running the test suite. "No lint errors" requires running the linter. "It builds" requires running the build.
2. Execute — Run the command freshly. Not from memory. Not from a previous session. Right now, in the current session.
3. Read — Read the FULL output. Do not skim. Do not assume. If the output is long, read all of it. Errors can hide at the end.
4. Verify — Confirm the output actually supports your claim. A test suite that prints results but exits with a failure code does not pass. A build that emits warnings about missing dependencies is not clean.
5. Assert — Only after steps 1-4 are complete, state your claim and include the evidence. Quote the relevant output.

WordPress/PHP Verification Checklist

Before claiming work is complete in this project, run each applicable command and confirm clean output:

Run these in order. A syntax error caught by php -l is cheaper to fix than one discovered by PHPUnit. Coding standards violations are cheaper to fix before tests run. Always clear caches before final verification to ensure you are testing real behavior, not cached results.

For the syntax check, target changed files specifically rather than the entire codebase. Use php -l on each modified PHP file. For recursive checking, use find . -name "*.php" -exec php -l {} \; scoped to the relevant directories.

Red Flags

These phrases are signals that the verification gate has NOT been passed:

• "should" — "Tests should pass" means you did not run them.
• "probably" — "This probably works" means you did not verify it.
• "seems to work" — "It seems to work" means you observed something informal, not a verification command.
• "I believe" — "I believe the build is clean" means you are guessing.
• Premature "Done!" — Claiming completion without showing command output.
• "All good!" — Without evidence, this is an opinion, not a verification.

If you catch yourself using these phrases, stop and run the actual command.

When to Verify

• Before every commit — Run the full checklist. Do not commit code that fails any check.
• Before marking a task done — The task is not done until verification proves it.
• Before creating a PR — The PR description should reference verification results.
• Before reporting status — "Feature complete" means verified, not "I think I finished writing code."
• Before delegating "completed" work — If you hand off work as complete, you are vouching for it. Verify first.