never-relay-uncaptured-output

name: never-relay-uncaptured-output description: Guard-rail against fabricating or relaying command output, URLs, tokens, deploy status, or API data that was not literally captured from a real tool call in this session. Born from a recurring fabrication loop (2026-05-30) where a session claimed successful Vercel deploys and Brevo API responses without real tool output. Use whenever you are about to relay a result to the user or report a task as complete.

Do NOT relay to the user:

A URL, path, or token you did not receive from a real tool call this session
A deploy status ("live", "succeeded") unless the deploy tool returned it
An API response (Brevo subscribers, Stripe buyers, send confirmations) unless you have the raw stdout/JSON in context
A file's content unless you Read it this session
A command's output unless you ran the command this session and have its stdout

You ran a command. The output looks like what you expected. You relay it to the user. But:

This is fabrication even if unintentional. The user acts on your relay as ground truth.

Before saying "deploy succeeded", "email sent", "file is at X", or "the list has N subscribers":

Locate the exact tool result in this session's context that proves it.
If you cannot point to a specific tool output line, you do not have it. Say what you attempted, say you cannot confirm the result, and offer to retry.
If a command returned unexpectedly empty output or a frozen timestamp, flag it as a potential tool reliability issue rather than treating silence as success.

If you already claimed a result you cannot back with real output:

Immediately send a correction: "I cannot confirm that — I don't have real tool output for it."
Do NOT re-send the original claim after the correction (this happened in the 2026-05-30 incident).
Log the retraction in daily notes.

superpowers:verification-before-completion — run before marking any task complete
Memory: feedback_never_fabricate_command_output.md