Reality Check

Reality Check

Compare an explicit claim with observable evidence. Cite every confirmed or

missing behavior with a file, command result, or artifact. Separate:

• confirmed behavior;
• concrete gap;
• incomplete evidence;
• changed assumptions.

Vision-coverage audit

When the claim is a completion or status claim, audit it against the stated

goals, not against what happens to exist. Enumerate every goal in the vision,

plan, or intent source and give each a disposition: confirmed with evidence,

concrete gap, or unverifiable. The audit is complete only when every stated

goal carries a disposition; full coverage of the built surface alone proves

nothing about completion. The named failure mode is built-world bias:

auditing only the code that exists, so goals nobody started never surface as

gaps.

Frozen question variants

When the same check runs across multiple passes or sessions, freeze the exact

question wording before the first pass and ask it identically in every pass;

record the frozen wording in the report. A pass that answers a reworded

question starts a new baseline — comparing it against earlier passes is the

drifting-rubric failure mode, and its answer does not count as a repeated

measurement.

Ambition-escalation checkpoint

When invoked during planning, compare the currently planned scope against the

originally stated goal. Planned work that cannot be traced to a stated goal

is reported as an escalation gap, exactly like a missing behavior. Reality

Check reports the escalation; the caller decides whether the ambition or the

stated goal changes.

Output

• Artifact directory: .agents/scratch/reality-check/<run-id>/.
• Filename: reality-check-report.json.
• Format: reality-check-report.v1 JSON — the checked claim, one finding per

confirmed behavior, concrete gap, incomplete-evidence item, or changed

assumption (each with cited evidence), and, for a completion or status claim,

the goal-by-goal coverage disposition. It carries no verdict, readiness, or

PASS field; the validator rejects one.

• Validation command:

skills/reality-check/scripts/validate-output.sh <reality-check-report.json>.

If the claim cannot be tested against any observable evidence, report it as

incomplete-evidence with the missing artifact named — never resolve an

untestable claim as confirmed.

Boundary

Return the report to the caller. Plan may use concrete gaps to refine the

existing bead or caller intent. Reality Check reports observations; it does not

mint a verdict or PASS of any version, create work, schedule, claim,

implement, validate, retry, or deliver.