ADR 006: Mandatory Self-Verification Protocol

Status

Accepted

Context

Engineering agents (Goder, Pixel, Sysca, Prime) were occasionally handing off work with syntax errors, lint failures, or broken builds, requiring manual intervention/re-prompting.

Decision

Embed a mandatory "Self-Verification Protocol" into the SOUL.md of every engineering profile. This protocol enforces a "test-before-complete" gate.

Protocol

1. Before marking any task complete, execute relevant test/lint runner.
2. If tests fail, self-correct and re-test before completing.
3. Never hand off unverified changes to the orchestrator or user.

Consequences

• Increased reliability of handoffs.
• Reduced "ping-pong" between agents and orchestrator.
• Slightly higher token/time cost per task due to mandatory verification steps.