diff --git a/prover/examples/README.md b/prover/examples/README.md
index be0177cb..e21906f9 100644
--- a/prover/examples/README.md
+++ b/prover/examples/README.md
@@ -67,11 +67,14 @@ cd prover/examples/sha2
 cargo build --target=mips-unknown-linux-musl
 ```
 
-* Run the host program 
+* Run the host program
+
+// echo -n 'world!' | sha256sum
+// 711e9609339e92b03ddc0a211827dba421f38f9ed8b9d806e1ffdd8c15ffa03d
 
 ```
 cd ../..
-RUST_LOG=info ELF_PATH=examples/sha2/target/mips-unknown-linux-musl/debug/sha2-bench SEG_OUTPUT=/tmp/output cargo run --release --example zkmips bench
+ARGS="711e9609339e92b03ddc0a211827dba421f38f9ed8b9d806e1ffdd8c15ffa03d world!" RUST_LOG=info ELF_PATH=examples/sha2/target/mips-unknown-linux-musl/debug/sha2-bench SEG_OUTPUT=/tmp/output cargo run --release --example zkmips bench
 
 Or
 
diff --git a/prover/examples/sha2/src/main.rs b/prover/examples/sha2/src/main.rs
index 68e64b39..5e1fadbe 100644
--- a/prover/examples/sha2/src/main.rs
+++ b/prover/examples/sha2/src/main.rs
@@ -8,11 +8,15 @@ use alloc::vec::Vec;
 zkm_runtime::entrypoint!(main);
 
 pub fn main() {
+    let public_input: [u8; 32] = zkm_runtime::io::read();
     let input: Vec<u8> = zkm_runtime::io::read();
 
     let mut hasher = Sha256::new();
     hasher.update(input);
     let result = hasher.finalize();
 
-    zkm_runtime::io::commit::<[u8; 32]>(&result.into());
+    let output: [u8; 32] = result.into();
+    assert_eq!(output, public_input);
+
+    zkm_runtime::io::commit::<[u8; 32]>(&output);
 }
diff --git a/prover/examples/zkmips.rs b/prover/examples/zkmips.rs
index 05ef467c..c0d3f37d 100644
--- a/prover/examples/zkmips.rs
+++ b/prover/examples/zkmips.rs
@@ -52,13 +52,25 @@ fn prove_sha2_bench() {
 
     let mut state = load_elf_with_patch(&elf_path, vec![]);
     // load input
-    let input = [5u8; 32];
-    state.add_input_stream(&input.to_vec());
+    let args = env::var("ARGS").unwrap_or("data-to-hash".to_string());
+    // assume the first arg is the hash output(which is a public input), and the second is the input.
+    let args: Vec<&str> = args.split_whitespace().collect();
+    assert_eq!(args.len(), 2);
+
+    let public_input: Vec<u8> = hex::decode(args[0]).unwrap();
+    state.add_input_stream(&public_input);
+    log::info!("expected public value in hex: {:X?}", args[0]);
+    log::info!("expected public value: {:X?}", public_input);
+
+    let private_input = args[1].as_bytes();
+    log::info!("private input value: {:X?}", private_input);
+    state.add_input_stream(&private_input);
 
     let (total_steps, mut state) = split_prog_into_segs(state, &seg_path, "", 0);
 
     let value = state.read_public_values::<[u8; 32]>();
     log::info!("public value: {:X?}", value);
+    log::info!("public value: {} in hex", hex::encode(value));
 
     let seg_file = format!("{seg_path}/{}", 0);
     let seg_reader = BufReader::new(File::open(seg_file).unwrap());