First Edition — December 2025
Created by: SEMCL.ONE Community License: CC BY-SA 4.0
This book introduces Verified Intent Development (VID), a methodology designed for software development in an era where artificial intelligence can generate code faster than humans can verify it.
The core insight: Code generation is no longer the bottleneck. Verification is.
VID addresses this new reality by building the judgment, practices, and habits that allow developers to move fast with confidence.
Complete VID Methodology available in multiple formats:
- PDF Download — Full methodology in PDF format
- EPUB Download — For e-readers and mobile devices
Or read online using the chapter links below
The VID Methodology is organized as individual chapters for optimal accessibility:
AI-friendly — Each chapter fits in context windows Modular — Read what you need, when you need it Maintainable — Updates don't invalidate entire context Flexible — Combine chapters as needed for your learning path
- Chapter 4: Principle One — Intent Before Generation
- Chapter 5: Principle Two — Graduated Trust
- Chapter 6: Principle Three — Understanding Over Acceptance
- Chapter 7: Principle Four — Provenance Awareness
- Chapter 8: Principle Five — Continuous Calibration
- Chapter 9: The Intent Specification Practice
- Chapter 10: The Verification Ritual Practice
- Chapter 11: The Learning Loop Practice
- Chapter 12: The Provenance Hygiene Practice
- Chapter 13: The Junior Engineer's Path to Verification Mastery Expanded 12-week curriculum
- Chapter 14: For Senior Engineers
- Chapter 15: For Teams and Organizations
- Chapter 19: Patterns and Anti-Patterns Real-world scenarios
- Chapter 20: The Verification Toolkit Comprehensive techniques
- Chapter 21: Test Verification Framework Meta-verification strategies
- Appendix A: Quick Reference
- Appendix B: Discussion Questions
- Appendix C: Glossary
- Appendix D: Risk Scoring Rubric Actionable risk assessment
- Appendix E: Decision Trees Procedural guidance for common scenarios
- Appendix F: VID Checklists Daily verification checklists and templates
- VID One-Page Overview Executive summary - share with colleagues
- VID for Engineering Managers Business case, adoption roadmap, and ROI analysis
- VID Visual Diagrams Visual representations of core concepts
- VID Real-World Examples Five concrete scenarios showing VID in action
- VID Templates Ready-to-use templates for immediate adoption
- Contributing Guide How to contribute to VID
- Roadmap & Versioning Evolution and future plans
Start with the one-page overview:
- VID One-Page Overview - 5-minute read covering the problem, solution, and getting started
Building the business case:
- VID for Engineering Managers - ROI analysis, adoption roadmap, and metrics
Junior Engineers:
- VID One-Page Overview - Start here
- Chapter 1: The Inversion - Understand the paradigm shift
- Chapter 4: Intent Before Generation - Learn the most important principle
- Chapter 13: The Junior Engineer's Path - Follow the 12-week curriculum
Senior Engineers:
- VID One-Page Overview - Start here
- Chapter 5: Graduated Trust - Learn to calibrate verification
- Appendix D: Risk Scoring Rubric - Actionable risk assessment
- Chapter 14: For Senior Engineers - Apply your experience effectively
Teams:
- VID for Engineering Managers - Build team buy-in
- Chapter 15: For Teams and Organizations - Build a verification culture
- Chapter 16: Adopting VID - Practical adoption guide
- Appendix E: Decision Trees - Common scenario guidance
Hands-On Learners:
- VID Visual Diagrams - Visual understanding of core concepts
- VID Real-World Examples - Five concrete scenarios
- VID Templates - Start using VID today
- Chapter 19: Patterns and Anti-Patterns - See VID in practice
- Chapter 20: The Verification Toolkit - Learn concrete techniques
- Intent Before Generation - Never generate code without first articulating what you intend to build and how you will verify correctness
- Graduated Trust - The level of verification should match the level of risk
- Understanding Over Acceptance - Never accept code you don't understand at an appropriate level of depth
- Provenance Awareness - Always know where code came from and what that origin implies
- Continuous Calibration - Regularly assess whether your verification practices match actual risk and adjust accordingly
- Intent Specification - Articulate functional requirements, boundaries, and success criteria before generating
- Verification Rituals - Apply consistent verification practices after every generation, scaled to risk
- Learning Loop - Track outcomes and adjust practices based on what you learn
- Provenance Hygiene - Document and maintain awareness of code origins
This book is designed to be accessible to AI coding assistants through its modular structure:
Context-Aware Loading
- Load individual chapters as needed to fit within context windows
- Combine 2-3 related chapters when broader context is needed
- Start with core chapters and add specific topics as required
Targeted Guidance by Situation
- Generating code → Chapter 4: Intent Before Generation + VID Templates
- Assessing risk → Chapter 5: Graduated Trust + Appendix D: Risk Scoring Rubric + VID Templates
- Reviewing code → Chapter 20: The Verification Toolkit + VID Templates
- Verifying tests → Chapter 21: Test Verification Framework
- Learning from failures → Chapter 19: Patterns and Anti-Patterns + VID Real-World Examples
- Understanding concepts visually → VID Diagrams
This is a living methodology. As AI capabilities evolve and teams gain experience with VID, the practices will evolve.
Share your experiences, patterns, and adaptations to help the community learn together.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
What this means:
- Share — Copy and redistribute in any medium or format
- Adapt — Remix, transform, and build upon the material
- Attribution — Credit must be given to SEMCL.ONE Community
- ShareAlike — Derivatives must use the same license
See LICENSE for full terms.
Verified Intent Development (VID) Methodology Created by the SEMCL.ONE Community https://github.com/SemClone/Verified-Intent-Development
Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
In documentation:
"Verified Intent Development (VID) Methodology" by SEMCL.ONE Community
Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
https://github.com/SemClone/Verified-Intent-Development
Academic citation:
SEMCL.ONE Community. (2025). Verified Intent Development (VID):
A Methodology for the Age of AI-Augmented Software Development.
Retrieved from https://github.com/SemClone/Verified-Intent-Development
"The developers who thrive in the AI-augmented future will be those who master verification, not just generation."