verification-before-completion

A completion-checking rule that requires fresh verification before claiming code is finished, fixed, or passing.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it before committing, opening a pull request, or reporting that tests, a linter, a build, or a bug fix succeeded.
Why use it?
It prevents success claims based only on assumptions, old test runs, or incomplete checks. The required evidence depends on the claim, such as test output for passing tests or a successful build command for a build claim.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/kasuken/github-copilot-superpowers/verification-before-completion
Any agent
npx skills add kasuken/github-copilot-superpowers --skill verification-before-completion
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/kasuken/github-copilot-superpowers

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 43 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 974 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin 84% copy Near-identical to another mod in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00043 $0.00974
Opus 5 $0.00022 $0.00487
Sonnet 5 $0.00009 $0.00195
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00097

Measured 2d ago against content hash ea52d15aabaf, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

verification-before-completion scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

Origin

This is a copy

84% identical to verification-before-completion — 19 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

.github/skills/verification-before-completion/SKILL.md · 140 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 140 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Verification Before Completion

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:

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

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

Red Flags - STOP

  • Using "should", "probably", "seems to"
  • Expressing satisfaction before verification ("Great!", "Perfect!", "Done!", etc.)
  • 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

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

Read the full file on GitHub · 140 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 140 lines · 43 tokens per session scan A ea52d15aabaf

Subscribe to this mod's changes

verification-before-completion is a skill published in the GitHub repository kasuken/github-copilot-superpowers (16 stars, last pushed 6mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 43 tokens to every session and 974 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 84% identical to verification-before-completion, differing in 19 lines, and is treated as a copy.