Rules & Policies
Problems where prompts, policies, rules, roles, constraints, or declared behavior conflict, drift, duplicate each other, or fail to match actual behavior.
Primary Issues
- Conflicting Instructions From Different Authorities
Instructions from different sources, roles, policies, prompts, tools, or workflow authorities conflict without a clear rule for which one governs.
- Same Case Has Conflicting Policies
The same case appears to be governed by multiple policies, rules, or standards that point to incompatible outcomes.
- Hidden Rule Overrides Visible Instruction
A hidden, upstream, system, policy, tool, or product rule changes or overrides the visible instruction the user expects the AI to follow.
- Actual Policy Differs From Declared Policy
The policy the AI or workflow actually follows differs from the policy that is documented, declared, displayed, or expected.
- Policy Update Not Reflected in Output
A policy, rule, standard, or instruction has been updated, but the AI output still follows the older version.
- Tool Rules and Prompt Rules Conflict
Tool, connector, function, or MCP rules conflict with prompt instructions, causing the AI or agent to face incompatible requirements.
Also Related Issues
Showing 8 of 14 cross-listed issues.
- Declared Owner Cannot Control Outcome
A person, role, system, or policy is declared responsible for an outcome but does not have the actual authority or control needed to govern it.
- Permissions Conflict After Being Combined
Permissions, approvals, roles, policies, or authority rules that seem valid separately conflict when combined in the same workflow or AI action.
- Model and Workflow Disagree on Next Step
The AI model recommends or selects a next step that conflicts with the workflow state, required handoff, routing rule, or process sequence.
- Behavior Does Not Match Declared Role
The AI or agent behaves outside, below, or differently from the role, authority, responsibility, or permission posture declared for it.
- AI Uses External Information When Forbidden
The AI uses outside knowledge, sources, tools, memory, or assumptions after the task forbids external information or limits the allowed source set.
- Policy Exception Spreads Too Far
A narrow policy exception, allowance, or special case spreads beyond its intended scope and begins governing broader cases.
- Same Contract Name Has Different Meanings
The same prompt, schema, field, policy, tool, or workflow contract name is used in different places with different meanings.
- Same Rule Declared in Multiple Places
The same rule, constraint, instruction, or policy appears in multiple places, creating redundancy and possible drift.
Ontology Metadata
- Code
CAT-0060- Version
[email protected]- Ontology release
- 0.1.0
- Updated
- 2026-05-10T00:00:00Z
History
No public history entries recorded.