Proof

Your agent has added recipe search to your app. You can try it and decide whether the results are useful. But there is another questionQuestionSomething the agent is asked to judge about the project or a change.: did the project's checks pass for the version you are reviewing?

Proof answers that question. It records the configured checks and measurements against the exact committed change they cover. You can see what has been established without reconstructing a session's commands from its conversation.

That gives your review a clearer starting point. You can focus on whether search behaves as you intended, whether the wording helps someone find a recipe, and what the checks leave for you to assess.

Read a Proof line

After successful completion through discern done, your agent includes a short Proof lineProofdiscern's completion evidence for the exact committed change it validated.. An illustrative example is:

Proof: GateGateThe configured checks a change must satisfy for ordinary completion. passed for agent/recipe-search-0a7563 at c5a02addf12a · 3 files changed (+84 −12) vs main · Standards held · 1 checkpointCheckpointA review question presented when a relevant kind of change occurs. declared metDeclared metThe agent has judged that the checkpoint question is satisfied for this change. · View the full Proof: discern status --verbose

Each part answers a different question:

Part of the line	What you learn
Gate passed	The project's required checks have passing evidence for this change.
Branch and commit	Which task and exact saved version the evidence describes. A commit is a version recorded in Git.
Files changed	The size of the change compared with its predecessor. `+84 −12` counts added and removed lines.
Standards held	The change satisfies the project's configured quality limits. A proposed limit change is shown separately when one needs your approval.
Checkpoint declared met	The agent recorded its judgment that a review question was satisfied.
View the full Proof	Where to inspect the checks, measurements, and recorded conclusions in more detail.

You can ask your agent:

Explain this Proof in terms of the feature I asked for. Which behaviors were checked, what did you try directly, and what should I review?

The line summarizes the record. Open the full Proof from the worktreeWorktreeA separate working copy and branch for one effort. with discern status --verbose, or ask your agent to retrieve it and explain the relevant parts.

What green establishes

The gate is the set of checks your project requires. These might build the app, test its behavior, check code conventions, and measure limits such as download size. Your project chooses the checks; discerndiscernA tool that installs and runs an agent development practice in a project. runs them and records their results.

For recipe search, a test might check that clearing the search box restores the full list. That tells you something useful about that behavior. It cannot tell you whether the search box is pleasant to use on your phone unless the project checks that too.

Proof therefore helps you choose what to investigate next. Try the changed feature, compare it with your request, and ask about areas the checks do not cover. The depth of further review depends on the change and its consequences. A green gate by itself cannot establish that no defects remain or that an application is ready for release.

The exact commit it covers

Evidence needs to describe the version that will become part of the project. Your agent prepares and commits the intended files before completion. discern checks that the worktree is clean and records the exact commit it validated.

That commit is what the agent later submits for landing, and what acceptance moves onto the trunkTrunkThe shared branch that accepted work joins, usually main.. Nothing else stands in: discern checks only the commit in the agent's worktree, and lands only a version the checks covered.

For example, one task adds recipe search while another changes how recipes are sorted. Each lands on its own commit with its own Proof and its own landing permission. Whichever lands second brings the first into its worktree with discern update, runs the gate again, and submits the combined result; the checks the incoming change does not affect are reused. Any conflict or newly applicable review question gets attention in that agent's worktree, where corrections belong.

Why Proof becomes stale

Suppose you ask for a clearer message when a search returns no recipes. The agent makes that improvement after its first green run. The earlier checks still happened, but the version you now want to land has changed.

The following can prevent reuse of the earlier Proof:

a later commit or amended commit;
staged, uncommitted, or untracked files in the worktree;
a changed checkpoint conclusion or rationale;
a changed standardStandardA held limit for a repeatable project measurement. proposal.

Generated files count as changes too. If a formatter or generator rewrites a file, the agent reviews and commits the intended output before renewing completion.

A shared branch that moves after the Proof does not make the Proof stale, but it does stop the landing. Acceptance refuses and names the route, discern update, discern done, then discern accept, so the evidence covers the combination that lands.

Fresh completion does not always mean repeating every command. discern can reuse passing evidence whose declared inputs and requirements still match, and obtain the evidence that is missing. When current Proof already covers the result, ordinary discern done can return it without running gate jobs again. A deliberate repeat uses --rerun.

Who supplies what

Proof keeps automated checks, review judgments, and permission distinct:

Contribution	Who supplies it	How it helps you
Verified results	discern runs the configured commands and records the evidence.	You can inspect which requirements passed.
Declared conclusions	Your agent answers the project's checkpoint questions.	You can read its reasoning and challenge the conclusion.
Landing authority	You approve the work now, or the project has a recorded grant covering it.	discern can check whether permission covers the work it will land.

A checkpoint might ask whether a new message gives someone a useful next action. The agent reads the message and records its judgment. Requiring that answer ensures the question receives attention; discern does not independently judge whether the answer is true.

If the agent declares a question unmet, Proof preserves the reason. You can ask for a correction, or approve that specific exception, called a variance. General landing permission and recorded grants do not approve a varianceVarianceThe owner's permission to land a change despite a stated unmet checkpoint.. Checkpoints explains how to weigh one.

Landing permission can come from your approval in the current conversation, a standing grant for named areas of the project, or a grant you record for one task at the deskDeskAn interactive view of the project's tasks and the actions available for them.. The desk grant covers the task's branch: a later green run on that branch is still covered once its agent submits it, so a review fix does not send you back to the desk. Acceptance checks the changed paths of the submitted commit against the permission it finds. This lets routine work proceed within limits you chose while uncovered work comes back for a decision.

Approve a Standard limit proposal

Sometimes a useful feature needs more room than an existing standard allows. For example, improved search might add to the app's download size. The agent should first investigate whether the increase can be reduced.

If changing the limit is justified, the proposal carries the current limit, proposed limit, measured value, and reason into Proof. You decide whether the benefit is worth that measured tradeoff. Acceptance requires approval of the exact proposal; general permission to land cannot supply it.

If you decline, the agent restores the previous limit and renews completion under that requirement. Set and raise standards covers the proposal procedure.

From green to live

A finished feature passes through different decisions on its way to users:

State	What it tells you
Green	The checks that ran passed. Completion can still require recorded judgments.
Ready for review	Current Proof exists, and the handoff explains the behavior and any decisions you need to weigh.
Submitted	The agent asked to land that exact commit. The submissionSubmissionAn effort's recorded request to land one exact commit. waits in the landing queue until permission arrives.
Authorized to land	Your consent or a verified grant covers the relevant work. Any separate exception decisions must also be settled.
Landed	Acceptance moved the submitted commit onto the trunk, the project's shared branch.
Live	Your project's release process made the change available to its users.

One state sits outside this sequence. An emergency landing is a repair you chose to land before its checks finished. It needs a fresh decision from you, and discern keeps a permanent record of which checks failed, never ran, or were stale. That record is not Proof, and later validation can settle the outstanding checks without erasing it. Land an urgent repair explains the route.

A landing removes the task's worktree, its resources, and its branch when the branch holds nothing beyond what landed; until then the workspace stays the agent's. With local Proof notes enabled, which is the default, acceptance attaches the completion evidence to the landed commit. Future maintainers can retrieve that record without the original chat or temporary worktree. The result reports any unfinished note recording or cleanup.

Publication to users belongs to your project. discern does not infer a release from a green gate or a landing. Local control explains where its work and evidence stay.

Choose the next action

For everyday work, ask your agent to bring back the changed behavior, current Proof, and any unresolved decision. If the evidence is incomplete, ask what remains and how it can be obtained. If you request another edit, expect renewed completion for the version you will review.

Diagnostic runs through discern done --standalone and reports through --ci help investigate or report check results. They do not supply the completion Proof needed to land. Run the gate in CI explains that reporting route.

Finish and land a change gives the practical handoff. Fix a red gate helps when a check fails. Proof and checkpoint formats holds the exact evidence fields and storage formats.