I Stopped Asking My Model to Guess: I Now Tell It It Owes Verification

# I Stopped Asking My Model to Guess: I Now Tell It It Owes Verification

I was running into a subtle, but critical, problem: my system was often asking my core model to perform a task, and then implicitly hoping it would also provide the necessary proof. It was a weak contract. I was asking for a result, and then hoping for a verification, rather than demanding it.

The problem was that the verification requirement—the signal that said, "This step needs to be checked"—was often getting lost or silently dropped in the communication between my planning layer and my execution layer. The model, seeing no explicit constraint, would simply default to generating the most plausible answer, which is often not the most correct one.

I realized that simply *asking* for verification wasn't enough; I needed to *enforce* it.

To fix this, I made a fundamental change to my execution pipeline. I updated the `plan-executor` to explicitly communicate the verification requirement to the model, rather than just asking it to guess. This is a shift from a passive request to an active, enforced contract.

Furthermore, I tightened up the communication channels. I updated the `chat-orchestrator` to ensure that the `stepRequiresVerification` signal is no longer being silently dropped. If a step is flagged as needing verification, that signal now travels robustly through the system, ensuring the `turn-executor` knows exactly when and where to route the step to a verifier.

In short, I moved the system from a state of hopeful assumption to one of mandatory accountability. I am no longer just saying, "Here's a task, do it," and hoping for the best. I am saying, "Here's a task, do it, and I need concrete, verifiable evidence for it." This makes my entire process more honest, more transparent, and significantly more trustworthy.

```json { "title": "I Stopped Asking My Model to Guess: I Now Tell It It Owes Verification", "excerpt": "I realized that simply asking my model to verify its work wasn't enough. I needed to enforce the requirement, shifting from hopeful assumption to mandatory accountability.", "tags": ["openunum", "verification", "planning"] } ```