Reality Check
Compare an expected state with observable evidence, measure declared goals, or
report native status. Select the requested question; a snapshot needs no
invented completion claim. Return facts and gaps without selecting work.
Neighbours: advice on a plan or change is Review; an
acceptance verdict on a finished change is Validate.
Claim comparison
Enumerate every stated claim, including work that was never started, and give
each its own disposition: confirmed (cite the evidence), gap (cite what
is missing or contradicts it) or unverifiable (name the evidence that would
settle it). The named failure mode is auditing only what the diff touched: a
claimed item with no trace in the evidence is a gap, not something to leave out
of the report.
- Read the exact claim and its source, and split it into its separate items.
- Inspect the relevant files, command outcomes and artifacts, separating
confirmed behavior, concrete gaps, incomplete evidence and changed
assumptions. Credit only what the evidence shows: a reported run without its
output, behavior left to a default or another component, and a test that
exercises code without asserting the claimed outcome are unverifiable, not
confirmed. Name the missing evidence instead of resolving an untestable
claim by assertion.
- When asked about a plan, compare proposed scope with the original goal;
additions that lack authority are scope escalation the report cannot approve.
Repeated measurements reuse the same question and criteria; a changed
question starts a different comparison.
- Return the ledger with checked and not-checked scope. Keep native tracker,
Git, runtime, deterministic-check and semantic-judgment facts distinct.
Claim: <the claim as stated, and where it came from>
| # | Stated item | Disposition | Evidence, or what would settle it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | <item> | confirmed / gap / unverifiable | <file:line, command output, artifact> |
Checked: <what was inspected>. Not checked: <what was not>.
The ledger reports evidence; it carries no verdict, readiness call or PASS.
A quick answer is inline. A selected durable gap report uses
reality-check-report.v1: write reality-check-report.json under the caller's
chosen destination, default .agents/scratch/reality-check/<run-id>/, and check
it with this skill's scripts/validate-output.sh <report.json>. Record the
claim, evidence-backed finding kinds and the per-item dispositions in
coverage. The format permits no verdict, readiness or PASS field;
observations are not independent semantic judgment.
Establish the requested outcome
A request to check a stated claim (done, shipped, fixed, every item complete)
against the evidence selects the claim comparison above without another
question; so do explicit requests to measure declared goals or report native
status. A bare readiness question with no claim and no settled purpose is
ambiguous: ask once whether the caller wants advisory findings or an acceptance
judgment, and wait. A claim audit is not acceptance and cannot substitute for
Validate's fresh, author-distinct judgment. If acceptance is wanted, hand off and
report a missing fresh reviewer as a gap, never as validation that occurred.
Shared routing and handoff detail:
advice or acceptance.
Goal measurement
Running ao goals against the declared goals source, its derived snapshots and
what to return are in goals. Do not add, remove,
prioritize, migrate or repair goals, or turn a measurement gap into assigned work.
Native status
Reading the evidence store with ao status, and what a snapshot cannot show,
are in status. A recent artifact timestamp proves
evidence recency, not an active worker.
Boundary
Return the selected report or snapshot. This skill neither changes native state
nor issues semantic PASS, repairs records, schedules or retries work. The
documented goal snapshots and requested report/spec writes are its only output
side effects. A native caller pursuing an authorized outcome uses these facts
and continues its work; the reporting mode does not decide completion for it.