# Principle Sequence Verifiable Units

Apply to multi-step work (sweeps, migrations, runs of similar edits) and to how you...

- Repository: https://github.com/nightly-labs/openbot (4509 stars)
- Category: Engineering
- License: see repository
- Last updated: 2026-11-01
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add nightly-labs/openbot --skill principle-sequence-verifiable-units -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add nightly-labs/openbot --skill principle-sequence-verifiable-units -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add nightly-labs/openbot --skill principle-sequence-verifiable-units -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add nightly-labs/openbot --skill principle-sequence-verifiable-units -g -a gemini-cli -y`

## Description

Apply to multi-step work (sweeps, migrations, runs of similar edits) and to how you stack commits and PRs. Break work into small units that each end in a verifiable state, check each before the next, and order delivery so the sequence proves itself to a reviewer.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Sequence work into verifiable units

Order work as a sequence of small units, each ending in a state you can check, and don't advance until the current one is green.

**Why:** A break caught at the unit that caused it is cheap to localize. A break caught after a batch is buried, and you have already built further on a broken base. Sequencing those same units into a delivery a reviewer can replay turns "trust me" into "watch it go red, then green."

**Execution.** In a sweep, migration, or any run of similar edits, verify each change before starting the next. Each unit is a before/after bracket: known-good state, one change, run the check, then proceed. Rebase onto clean trunk first so every check measures against the real baseline. When a lever does the edits, the per-unit check is nearly free. Run it anyway.

**Delivery.** Stack commits and PRs in the order that proves the work. The canonical shape is the failing test first, then the fix on top. Other story orders are a subtraction before the reshape, a baseline capture before the treatment, the scaffold before the feature. Each commit lands on its own and the sequence reads as an argument.

The sequencing complement to the **prove-it-works** principle skill, which keeps each check real, and the **build-the-lever** principle skill, which makes the per-unit check cheap.