Sanity check
also: sanity checks, sanity checking
A quick, simple check that a result or change is basically reasonable before you trust it or dig deeper.
A fast, shallow check that something isn't obviously broken or wrong: the app starts, the page loads, the total isn't negative. It doesn't prove correctness; it cheaply catches glaring mistakes before deeper testing.
Glancing at a restaurant bill and seeing $900 for two coffees. You haven't checked every line, but you know something is badly wrong.
Agents can report success with full confidence. A 30-second sanity check, like opening the page yourself, catches a surprising number of "done" features that don't actually work.
As a sanity check, I started the dev server and loaded /settings. It renders with no errors. I haven't run the full test suite yet.
After the migration, do a sanity check: count the rows in the users table before and after, and confirm the numbers match.
Treating a sanity check as full verification. It catches obvious breakage, not subtle bugs. "It loads" is not the same as "it works correctly".