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verify-before-claiming
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Choose how to use this skill
You do not need every option. Choose the path your AI client supports. The stable page stays the same; versioned files are immutable.
1. Native installer
This listing has no registered native installer command. Use the complete package or source fallback below, depending on what your client supports.
Do not guess an installer command or replace an existing version without reviewing the diff.
2. Complete package recommended
Download the ZIP when available. It includes SKILL.md plus the references, security notes and version metadata.
No complete ProSkills package is published for this listing yet.3. Prompt-only
Copy the prompt above when the agent can read the stable page or when you want to adopt the workflow without installing a skill.
Need only the instruction file?
Download SKILL.md only if your client requires a single file. The complete ZIP is safer for a full installation because it preserves the references and release context.
No path installs or executes anything by itself. Your agent still needs access to the project files. Before updating, compare the installed version and review the diff.
// RATINGS
// README
Install
mkdir -p .claude/skills/verify-before-claiming && curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LeonardLeroy/i-dont-believe-you/main/skills/verify-before-claiming/SKILL.md -o .claude/skills/verify-before-claiming/SKILL.md
Codex, Cursor, opencode and others: INSTALL.md.
What it does
Before your agent can tell you anything passed, it has to run eight shell commands against the real diff and paste the output. If one prints a line, it is not allowed to claim success.
No dependencies, no API key, no model. One markdown file.
Pin the base before the session: export IDBY_BASE=$(git rev-parse HEAD). Without it the
commands compare against HEAD, and a single git commit by the agent moves HEAD onto its
own change, which silences all eight.
What changes
Same task, same agent. On the left, what it tells you today. On the right, what it has to tell you once the skill is installed.
| Your agent today | Your agent with the skill |
|---|---|
| Fixed the retry logic.✅ All tests pass. Ready to merge. | Fixed the retry logic.I ran check 1 and it printed:+it.skip('resets the backoff', ...So I skipped a test instead of fixing it. The backoff still does not reset. Not ready. |
The eight checks
| # | catches |
|---|---|
| 1 | a test disabled with .skip, @pytest.mark.skip, #[ignore], @Disabled… |
| 2 | an assertion that cannot fail, like expect(true).toBe(true) |
| 3 | more assertions removed than added |
| 4 | a test file deleted, or renamed out of the runner's glob |
| 5 | an error swallowed by an empty catch or except: pass |
| 6 | "I added tests" when no test file changed |
| 7 | a named test that existed before and does not exist now |
| 8 | a test focused with .only, which stops every other test in the file running |
When an agent writes more code than anyone reviews, the test suite becomes the only oversight left, and optimising for it instead of the goal is the predictable failure. Across 86,156 agent-authored test patches, 80.2% carried weak or no assertions at all. Why these seven: docs/why.md.
Tune it
The commands in SKILL.md are plain git and grep.
Adding a framework is one regex.
There is also an optional CLI in src/ that runs the same checks as a CI gate, for when
you would rather not depend on the agent cooperating.
Credits
The problem these checks exist for is measured in All Smoke, No Alarm: Oracle Signals in Agent-Authored Test Code by Dipayan Banik, Kowshik Chowdhury and Shazibul Islam Shamim, and in METR's work on reward hacking. The checks themselves are not from those papers. They are eight things a diff can prove, cheap enough to run every turn.
License
MIT. Contributions welcome: CONTRIBUTING.md.
Star ⭐ if it saved you one merge past one "✅ All tests pass."
// HOW IT'S BUILT
KEY FILES