Herein, a chemical probe is tested with live agents for the purpose of benchmarking fluorescent pyridyl-containing systems with actual nerve agents and simulants together. The molecule showed selective fluorogenic and colorimetric detection of Soman (GD) and its simulant over other G-series nerve agents and their simulants. <sup>1sup>H and <sup>31sup>P NMR spectroscopy and TD-DFT calculations help reveal the origin of the colorimetric and fluorogenic changes in the reacted system.