dotfiles/claude/memory/reference-verification-ladder.md

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name	description	metadata	permalink
reference-verification-ladder	Canonical home for the proven verification instruments — the named gates any session reaches for instead of re-deriving. Steward-authorized consolidation 2026-06-05 (skill-harvest ruling); ends the per-wrap re-proposing of individual instruments.	node_type type originSessionId memory reference b3202a24-301f-499d-af9e-ac5368dd2c73	claude-memory/reference-verification-ladder

The Verification Ladder — named instruments

Proven gates, each earned from a real catch. Reach for the one the claim's shape demands; a claim without its gate is an assertion. Linked disciplines: feedback-trust-prior-pass-frame, feedback-verify-each-post-type-after-changes, feedback-rank-on-fields-you-actually-write.

Output-equivalence claims ("this refactor changes nothing")

• Byte-identical compile gate — prove with cmp/diff at BOTH the direct-invocation level and the full-pipeline level. Proven 3×: SCSS Stage 1 (c37a3bd), site.hs listing generator, §I.k transform dormancy.
• Expected-delta gate — when diff=0 is impossible, prove the delta's complete shape: sort -u over all per-file diffs; every line must belong to a named class (2026-06-04).
• Delta classification — corpus-wide variant: classify EVERY changed line into named classes; the unclassified residue must be exactly empty-or-whitespace. Catches what sampling misses, including one's own shipping comments (decompose + SEO passes, 2026-06-05).

Coverage claims ("all X were handled")

• Exhaustive route/rule census — enumerate ALL routes/rules/sections before classifying any; classify each explicitly; no sampling. (The censused-routes discipline; §I.k.c measuring read.)
• Count first, then look — never read a census through truncation (| head, clipped listings). wc -l before inspection; 3 same-day instances 2026-06-05 (chamber/CM-AI/studium untracked files).

Build/render claims ("it works / it looks right")

• Render-and-LOOK — render the artifact and read it before asserting; never reason from the remembered model (caught glued FR colons, feTurbulence errors, viewport misreads).
• Per-type × per-viewport — after any shared CSS/template change, every content type on desktop AND phone (feedback-verify-each-post-type-after-changes).
• Compiled-selector grep gate — after SCSS changes, grep the compiled CSS for retired/duplicated selectors and late overrides (caught opacity duplicates + silent font-family override, 2026-06-03).
• Governed-char byte gate — verify specific codepoints by byte ([8239] probes), not by eye; verify test INPUTS too (the \x202Fc hex-escape trap).

Toolchain claims ("the parser/build does X")

• Measure-toolchain-before-spec — probe actual behavior (ghci/REPL probes) before writing spec text that presumes it («» parse as Str; BulletList misparse; 2026-06-04/05).

Numeric/accessibility claims

• Compute, don't eyeball — WCAG contrast via calculator (1.84:1 vs an assumed "fine"; 2026-06-03).

Remote/persistence claims ("it's backed up / deployed")

• Fresh-clone gate — verify a remote by independent clone and content check, never by push exit-code (chamber-library LFS: the remote held stubs for months while pushes "succeeded"; 2026-06-05).
• Live-fetch gate — verify deploys by fetching the live URL and reading bytes (robots.txt, 403 differentials; 2026-06-05).

Extension claims ("the earlier verification covers this too")

• Re-verify at the extension's scope — the prior pass tested what it tested (feedback-trust-prior-pass-frame; now also a Symmetria §3 flag).

Causal claims about running systems ("X is what's pinning the CPU / blocking the loop")

• Sampling-profile gate — name the hot path by measurement (process sample / SIGUSR1→CDP CPU profile) before naming the culprit; log shape suggests mechanism but does not prove it (circle-forward read as a retry queue from log census; profile + code read showed fire-and-forget and the pin elsewhere entirely — temporal; 2026-06-06). Corollary: write the inferred-vs-measured split explicitly in any outward claim — when the profile overturns the lean, sharpening costs nothing where retraction would have.