verify-this

Verify This

Verification is not a recap. It proves or disproves a specific claim with repeatable evidence.

When To Use

• The user asks "verify this", "prove it works", "did this fix it", or "show me the evidence".
• A bug fix needs a before/after repro.
• A UI, CLI, API, performance, or memory claim needs measurement.
• A test passes but the user-visible behavior still needs confirmation.

Do not use this for vague claims like "the code is cleaner". Ask for a measurable claim first.

Workflow

1. Restate the claim in falsifiable form: condition, metric, and threshold.
2. Pick the smallest local surface that can disprove it.
3. Capture a baseline from the old state: merge base, parent commit, failing branch, or current broken repro.
4. Capture treatment from the changed state with the same command, data, warmup, and environment.
5. Compare raw artifacts: numbers, screenshots, terminal transcripts, HTTP responses, profiles, heap snapshots, or test output.
6. Return exactly one verdict: VERIFIED, NOT VERIFIED, or INCONCLUSIVE.

Local Surfaces

• Code behavior: focused unit/integration tests or a minimal repro script.
• CLI/TUI behavior: control-cli, terminal transcript, or demo recording.
• UI behavior: control-ui, screenshots, accessibility snapshots, or browser traces.
• API behavior: local HTTP/RPC request and response diff.
• Performance: same-machine baseline/treatment timings or CPU profiles.
• Memory: heap snapshots before and after the suspected operation.

Artifact Layout

When safe to write artifacts:

/tmp/verify-this/<claim-slug>/
├── claim.md
├── timeline.md
├── baseline/
├── treatment/
├── diff/
└── verdict.md

If artifacts may contain sensitive code, prompts, screenshots, HTTP bodies, or heap data, keep only the minimal inline evidence unless the user agrees to disk storage.

Verdict Rules

• VERIFIED: baseline and treatment differ in the predicted direction, by the claimed threshold, with no obvious confound.
• NOT VERIFIED: the behavior is unchanged, moves the wrong way, or misses the threshold.
• INCONCLUSIVE: no valid baseline, noisy signal, failed measurement, or an environment difference invalidates the comparison.

Output

Use this shape:

VERIFIED | NOT VERIFIED | INCONCLUSIVE
Claim: <falsifiable claim>

Evidence:
<metric/artifact>: baseline=<...>, treatment=<...>, delta=<...>, threshold=<...>

Reasoning:
<one tight paragraph naming the evidence and any confounds>

Do not soften a negative result. A clear NOT VERIFIED is useful.