padosoft-verify-before-writinglisted

Use this skill whenever an agent is about to write something it has not verified — a call to a helper whose signature it inferred from the name, an enum case that sounds plausible, a config key, a column, a file path mentioned in a plan but never opened, a docblock explaining a mechanism nobody read, a commit message asserting what the code does. Also when the user says the agent invented an API, hallucinated a method, confidently described behaviour that does not exist, or asks how to stop it happening. It gives the rule (ask, or log the doubt — never the silent third option), what must be verified, and how autonomous mode changes the answer without removing the obligation. Do not use it for verifying facts about the outside world, for prompt engineering, or for reviewing code somebody else wrote.
padosoft/skills · ★ 1 · AI & Automation · score 80

Install: claude install-skill padosoft/skills

# Verify before writing An invented fact that reaches the repository does not stay a mistake. It becomes a **source**: the next session reads that docblock, that comment, that setting description, and takes it as true. The cost of a thirty-second check is smaller than writing it wrong, reviewing it, fixing it, and then fixing everything that was built on it. **The rule: never invent silently. Ask, or record the doubt and report it. What is forbidden is the third option — writing an unverified fact and telling nobody.** --- ## 1. What has to be verified, always | Statement about | Verification | |---|---| | A function, helper or method signature | read the source — never infer from the name | | What a parameter *means* | read the implementation, not the identifier | | A file, class or method named in a task or a plan | open it before referencing or editing it | | A project convention (naming, structure, paths) | the written rule **plus** one real example in the repo | | Infrastructure behaviour (tenancy, cache, queue, auth) | the instruction file, or the code | | Framework or library behaviour | the installed version's source, or its official docs | | Enum cases, constants, status values | read the definition — do not derive them from the domain | | A name, path or identifier with no obvious precedent | ask | The recurring failure is not exotic. It is **inferring an argument order from a helper's name**, and being wrong by one position. ## 2. The two modes, and the obli