verifying

verifying is a skill for Claude Code from MereWhiplash/engram-cogitator. It costs 18 tokens per session (672 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A verification procedure for checking claims about tests, builds, or fixed bugs with fresh command output before reporting success.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to find the project's configured test, lint, and build commands, check known verification issues, run the relevant command, inspect the full result, and confirm what it proves.
Why use it?
It prevents an agent from saying that work is complete based on memory or assumptions instead of current evidence.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: shipped in a Claude Code plugin.

Part of the cogitation plugin — 20 skills, 1 command, 1 hook shipped together

Good fit Use it to find the project's configured test, lint, and build commands, check known verification issues, run the relevant command, inspect the full result, and confirm what it proves.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/merewhiplash/engram-cogitator/verifying
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.

Any agent
npx skills add MereWhiplash/engram-cogitator --skill verifying
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/MereWhiplash/engram-cogitator

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install cogitation, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 20 skills, 1 command, 1 hook.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for verifying

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/merewhiplash/engram-cogitator/verifying/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/merewhiplash/engram-cogitator/verifying)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/merewhiplash/engram-cogitator/verifying"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/merewhiplash/engram-cogitator/verifying/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for verifying

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/merewhiplash/engram-cogitator/verifying"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/merewhiplash/engram-cogitator/verifying.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 18 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 672 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found 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 5.1 $0.00018 $0.00672
Opus 5 $0.00009 $0.00336
Sonnet 5 $0.00004 $0.00134
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00067

Measured 9d ago against content hash 4a6d16c8d76f, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-08, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

verifying 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 9d 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.

cogitation/skills/verifying/SKILL.md · 117 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 117 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Verification

Don't claim something works until you've seen the evidence.

Announce: "I'm using the verifying skill to confirm this works."

The Rule

NO COMPLETION CLAIMS WITHOUT FRESH VERIFICATION

Step 0: Load Project Config

Before running commands, get the configured commands from EC:

ec_search:
  query: project config
  type: config
  area: project

Extract: test_command, lint_command, build_command

If no config: Use sensible defaults but warn:

"No project config found. Using default commands. Consider running @cog-init."

Step 1: Check for Known Gotchas

Search EC for verification issues in this area:

ec_search:
  query: verification gotcha
  type: learning

Apply any known workarounds or warnings.

The Gate

Before claiming any success:

  1. Identify - What command proves this claim?
  2. Run - Execute it fresh, completely
  3. Read - Full output, check exit code
  4. Verify - Does output confirm the claim?
  5. Then claim - Only now state the result

Command Reference

Use the project-configured commands:

Claim Command Fallback
"Tests pass" {test_command} npm test
"Build succeeds" {build_command} npm run build
"Types check" {lint_command} npx tsc --noEmit
"Lints clean" {lint_command} npm run lint

Examples

Claim Requires Not Sufficient
"Tests pass" Test output showing 0 failures Previous run, "should pass"
"Build succeeds" Build with exit 0 Linter passing
"Bug fixed" Test for the bug passes "I changed the code"
"Type-safe" Type-check with no errors "Looks right"

Forbidden Phrases

Without fresh evidence, never say:

  • "Should work now"
  • "That should fix it"
  • "Tests probably pass"
  • "I'm confident this works"

The Pattern

NO: "Fixed the bug, tests should pass now"

YES: [Run tests]
     "Tests pass: 47/47. Bug fix verified."

Read the full file on GitHub · 117 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. 9d ago First seen · 117 lines · 18 tokens per session scan A 4a6d16c8d76f

Subscribe to this mod's changes

verifying is a skill published in the GitHub repository MereWhiplash/engram-cogitator (4 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 18 tokens to every session and 672 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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