High quality, fully-programmable quantum processors are available with small numbers (<1000) of qubits, and the scientific potential of these near term machines is not well understood. If the small number of physical qubits precludes practical quantum error correction, how can these error-susceptible processors be used to perform useful tasks? We present a strategy for developing quantum error detection for certain gate imperfections that utilizes additional internal states and does not require additional physical qubits. Examples for adding error detection are provided for a universal gate set in the trapped ion platform. Error detection can be used to certify individual gate operations against certain errors, and the irreversible nature of the detection allows a result of a complex computation to be checked at the end for error flags.

5 pages, 2 figures