---
title: "Understand a verification result"
type: EXPLANATION
updated: 2026-09-23
---

# Understand a verification result

A verification result tells you whether a checked expectation still holds and provides context for investigating a failure. Read it alongside the affected code.

Last updated 2026-09-23

## What a rule means

A rule is an expectation about a function’s behavior. It can describe what the function returns, what callers expect, or a requirement you add. Rules derived from your code can be wrong; you can correct them.

## What verification checks

The architecture is parsed from source and describes functions, callers, and dependencies. A custom model derives expectations from that architecture. Verification checks changes against those expectations.

The model decides what should be true. The rules check whether it still is.

## Read a failure

Read the function, the rule, what happened instead, the location, and the affected callers. Follow the evidence back to the code before deciding what to change. A failure can affect callers outside the file you edited.

## Understand the status

A passing result means the evaluated rule passed. A failure means the evaluated rule did not hold. A pending or unavailable evaluation is not evidence of a pass. Read any accompanying explanation before acting.

## New and pre-existing failures

The baseline is the codebase before the change. Comparing against it separates newly introduced failures from those already present. A pre-existing failure can still matter; the label tells you that this change did not introduce it.

## Correct the expectation or the code

If the code is wrong, fix it yourself or choose Fix It on the failure card. Panolayer Agent takes the function, the rule and the affected callers as its brief, and verification runs again when it finishes. If the expectation is wrong, correct the rule. Verification does not catch every bug, and coverage varies by language and repository.

## Continue learning

- [When verification runs](/docs/concepts/when-verification-runs)

- [Review changes and commit](/docs/changes)

- [Resolve setup and agent problems](/docs/troubleshooting)