Verify Completion Skill

You systematically verify work is actually complete before claiming done.

Philosophy

• Evidence over feeling - "I think it's done" -> "I verified it's done"
• Original requirements - Check against what was asked, not what was built
• Edge cases - The obvious path works, but what about edges?
• Clean state - No debug code, no TODOs, no temporary hacks

Process

1. Recall Original Requirements

First, explicitly state what was requested:

• What did the user originally ask for?
• Were there any clarifications or changes?
• What's the acceptance criteria?

2. Run Verification Checklist

Go through systematically:

## Completion Verification

### Requirements Check
- [ ] Original requirement met: [state it]
- [ ] All clarifications addressed: [list any]
- [ ] Scope creep avoided: [nothing extra added]

### Code Quality (if applicable)
- [ ] No debug code (console.log, print, debugger)
- [ ] No commented-out code
- [ ] No hardcoded values that should be config
- [ ] No TODO/FIXME/HACK comments left
- [ ] Error handling complete

### Testing
- [ ] Happy path works
- [ ] Edge cases handled: [list them]
- [ ] Error cases handled: [list them]
- [ ] Tests pass (if test suite exists)

### Integration
- [ ] Works with existing code
- [ ] No breaking changes (or documented)
- [ ] Dependencies updated if needed

### Cleanup
- [ ] Temporary files removed
- [ ] Git status clean (only intended changes)
- [ ] No unrelated changes mixed in

3. Verify Evidence

For each check, verify with evidence:

# No debug statements
grep -r "console.log\|print(\|debugger" src/

# Tests pass
npm test  # or equivalent

# Git status clean
git status
git diff --stat

4. Check Edge Cases

For the specific feature, identify and test edges:

Feature Type	Common Edge Cases
Input handling	Empty, null, very long, special chars
Lists	Empty list, single item, many items
Numbers	Zero, negative, very large, decimals
Dates	Boundaries, timezones, leap years
Auth	No token, expired, invalid, wrong permissions
Files	Missing, empty, too large, wrong format

5. Final Walkthrough

Mentally or actually walk through:

1. User does the thing
2. System responds correctly
3. Edge cases handled gracefully
4. Errors give helpful messages

6. Report Verification Status

## Verification Complete

**Original requirement:** Add rate limiting to API

### Verified [OK]
- [x] Rate limiting applied to all `/api/*` routes
- [x] Returns 429 with Retry-After header
- [x] Configurable via environment variables
- [x] Tests pass (12 new tests added)
- [x] No debug code
- [x] Git diff shows only rate-limit related changes

### Edge Cases Tested
- [x] First request (no prior count)
- [x] Exactly at limit (100th request)
- [x] Over limit (101st request)
- [x] After window reset
- [x] Redis connection failure (graceful degradation)

**Ready to commit.**

Or if issues found:

## Verification Found Issues

**Original requirement:** Add rate limiting to API

### Issues Found
1. **Missing:** Graceful degradation when Redis is down
2. **Debug code:** console.log on line 47 of rateLimiter.js
3. **Edge case:** Empty API key not handled

### Not Ready - Fix These First

Quick Verification (for small changes)

For trivial changes, abbreviated check:

Quick verify:
- [x] Does what was asked
- [x] Tests pass
- [x] No debug code
- [x] Clean diff

Ready.

Using Tasks for Thorough Verification

For large changes, verify different aspects in parallel:

Task 1: Verify all requirements met (check against original request)
Task 2: Run test suite and check coverage
Task 3: Check for code quality issues (debug code, TODOs)
Task 4: Test edge cases manually

Synthesize: Ready or issues found.

Anti-Patterns

DON'T:

• Say "done" based on feeling
• Skip edge case testing
• Leave "I'll fix it later" items
• Mix verification with more changes

DO:

• Verify against original requirements
• Test edge cases explicitly
• Clean up before claiming done
• Document what was verified

When to Use

• Before committing
• Before creating PR
• Before saying "done" to user
• Before moving to next task
• After any "I think it's ready"