---
name: michael-denyer-principle-sequence-verifiable-units
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."
license: "MIT"
metadata:
  decimalai-skill-id: "91b41a34-0b8e-4969-aed1-44db0c28e5d0"
  decimalai-version-id: "1dafafd3-3077-4981-b910-cedf75306efe"
  decimalai-version: "2"
  decimalai-body-sha256: "8c83299f234f5757aec644cd6052956a6baf65da0173621508d97e45147135f9"
  decimalai-name: "michael-denyer/principle-sequence-verifiable-units"
  decimalai-format: "1"
  decimalai-invocation: "model"
  decimalai-category: "coding"
  decimalai-source: "https://app.decimal.ai/s/michael-denyer-principle-sequence-verifiable-units@2/SKILL.md"
---
# 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.