verify-and-finish git:20261024.14f13d2A

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---
name: verify-and-finish
description: Use to verify a completed outcome before claiming success, handing off, committing, merging, publishing, deploying, or closing a task. Do not use for an intermediate update, an isolated test run, or merely naming an oracle command.
when_to_use: "Trigger phrases: prove this is done, commit, push, open the PR, merge, publish, deploy, ship it, wrap up, hand off, final completion check."
metadata:
  short-description: Verification and honest status before any completion claim
---

# Verify and Finish

First check, with the cheapest fresh oracle, whether the outcome already holds.
If nothing remains and no review or manual gate is pending, report a verified
no-op before broad checks; an external no-op needs an external readback.

Evidence precedes every load-bearing claim. Run each acceptance oracle fresh
against the current artifact, read the whole result, and state only what it
proves. An empty search or scan proves absence only after it finds a known
positive. Never weaken a test, baseline, threshold, or predicate to obtain a
pass; after a code change, run the [bar guard](references/bar-guard.md) and fix
or report each finding. Run long or verbose checks through the
[run receipt tool](references/run-receipt.md); block on a running check and
never poll with `sleep`.

Label inspection and inference; neither is an executed check. Rerun relevant
checks after a rebase onto a changed base. Separate declared configuration from
effective runtime behavior. A local build cannot prove a deployment, published
package, API effect, or user-visible result; exercise the real boundary and
record the environment and correlation identity, or report the criterion
unverified. A claim that something will recur
names its schedule, hook, or config entry and cites a readback of it.

When the change can affect a user journey, run that journey through the surface
the user will open; name any agreed substitute's limits. After driving one
journey by hand twice, offer a repeatable
[verification driver](references/verification-driver.md). Resolve each affected
specification requirement to fresh evidence or a remaining gap, and join every
requested review before finishing.

Before a handoff, commit, PR, merge, or release, run canonical checks and
inspect the diff and workspace. Remove generated excess and report unrequested
behavior as scope creep. Keep review packages, receipts, and evidence records
under `$TMPDIR`, out of project files, unless the user asks otherwise; review
provenance belongs in the report.
Confirm a named target branch and authority before
committing, publishing, merging, or deleting a branch or worktree. For a
handoff, write a [handoff note](references/handoff.md); for a PR, use the
[PR body guide](references/pr-body.md).

Open the report with `VERIFIED: <claim>` only when every required criterion has
fresh oracle evidence, and state what that evidence does not cover. Otherwise
use `NOT VERIFIED. Remaining: <gap>`, citing each gap's rule or command result.