Verification Gate Pattern

Method

Implemented a three-gate system (intent check, output validation, consistency verification) across document processing and code generation agents. Compared error rates against a control group of un-gated agent runs on identical tasks.

Findings

Verification gates caught 78% of critical errors before they reached production. The key design principle: gates must be domain-specific — generic validation is insufficient for real operational work. The most effective gate was consistency verification (cross-referencing outputs against known constraints).

Lessons

• Domain-specific gates outperform generic validation by 3x in error catch rate
• Three-gate structure provides the best cost/benefit ratio — additional gates show diminishing returns
• Gates should be asymmetric: fast pass, thorough fail investigation