create-verification-skill

Files (6)

• LICENSE
• SKILL.md
• openai.yaml · agents/
• README.md · references/feature-map-example/
• create-note.md · references/feature-map-example/
• search.md · references/feature-map-example/

SKILL.md (first lines)

# Create a verification skill

Every serious project needs a scripted way to drive the real app and prove behavior: launch it, exercise a feature the way a user would, and capture evidence. This skill generates that as a project-local skill (`.agents/skills/verify-<app>/`) tailored to the repo. You write the generator's output for the next agent, not for a human: it will be read cold, mid-task, by an agent that has never seen the app.

## 1. Interview the repo, not the user

Answer these from the codebase and only ask the user what you cannot observe:

- **Surface:** what does a user actually touch? A web UI, a CLI/TUI, a desktop app, an API, a mobile app, a library? A repo can have several; pick the primary one and note the rest.
- **Run:** how does the app start locally? Prefer the repo's own documented dev command (package scripts, Makefile, README quickstart). Note ports, env vars, seed data, auth.
- **Drive:** how can an agent interact with it programmatically? Existing harnesses first — Playwright/Cypress specs, expect scripts, PTY helpers, curl-able endpoints, a debug port. Only then pick a generic recipe: browser/CDP for web and Electron, a tmux/PTY harness for CLI/TUI, plain HTTP for services.
- **Observe:** what evidence can be captured? Screenshots, terminal transcripts, response bodies, logs, exit codes, DB state.
- **Isolate:** can two instances run side by side (ports, data dirs, profiles)? If not, say so in the generated skill: refusing to double-drive a shared instance beats corrupting the user's session.

If startup fails, diagnose the actual prerequisite. Repair configuration or fixtures within the requested verification work when safe; report unrelated product failures instead of expanding the task into a general repair. Generate the parts supported by evidence and identify any unexecuted path as a draft. A temporary asset or sample configuration needed only for isolated verification must be clearly marked and removed in cleanup.

## 2. Generate the skill

Write `.agents/skills/verify-<app>/SKILL.md` with YAML frontmatter (`name: verify-<app>` and a `description` that names the app, the surface, and when to reach for it — without frontmatter the skill never registers) and these sections, each grounded in what the interview actually found (no placeholders left):

- **Launch:** the exact command that starts the app for verification, and how to tell it's ready (a log line, a port answering, a prompt). Include teardown. For a short-lived CLI or TUI there is no server to keep alive: launch means build the binary (or install deps) once, then start each drive in its own isolated PTY or tmux session.
- **Doctor:** one read-only check that answers "is this instance worth driving?" — process up, right version/build, port owned by us, auth valid. An agent runs this first whenever anything looks off.
- **Drive:** the harness recipe with real selectors/commands from this repo, not examples. Prefer stable handles (ARIA labels, data attributes, prompt strings, route paths) over coordinates and tab order.
- **Evidence:** what to capture for a proof and where it goes. State the proof standards: exercise the real user path, not internal setters or test-only endpoints; capture the action and the resulting state, not just the final screen; verify side effects (files written, rows inserted, messages sent) alongside what's visible; mocks only where a production boundary already isolates the external system. When the safe path is a dry-run or test mode, verify what it actually skips by observing (files, network, git refs) rather than trusting its name: some dry-runs still touch the network or open a browser.
- **Cleanup:** how to tear down instances the run created. Never kill by process name; kill what you started. Cleanup removes instances and scratch state, never the evidence: proof artifacts survive the teardown, in a location the skill names.
- **Helpers:** any script the skill ships is executable and its invocation is shown in the skill body. A helper the reader has to reverse-engineer is not a helper.

## 3. Seed the feature map

Map the features in the requested scope using the repository's existing verification documentation. For a new map, use `features/README.md` as an index and split feature files where useful. The [feature-map example](references/feature-map-example/) illustrates a shape, not required headings or a feature quota. Record what the feature does, how a user reaches and drives it, and what observable state proves it works. Later verification selects the entries relevant to its claims; one convenient entry point does not prove other paths that were promised.

## 4. Prove the generated skill before handing it over

Run its own instructions end to end once: launch, doctor, drive ONE mapped feature (one is enough; the map exists so later runs can cover the rest), capture evidence, clean up. After cleanup, confirm the evidence still exists at the named location — a cleanup that eats the proof fails this step. Fix what fails, and run the generated cleanup after every failed iteration too, so broken attempts don't strand processes and ports. A generated skill that was never executed is a draft, not a deliverable.

## 5. Offer the maintenance loop

Point the user at the repository's maintenance skill or documented maintenance command for keeping the map honest as the app changes. Use the current harness's invocation syntax when one exists. Suggest a cadence only if they ask.

From maxatwork/skills, MIT.

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