# Actual Policy Differs From Declared Policy

## Ontology Metadata

Code: ISS-0040
Version: ISS-0040@0.1.0
Ontology release: 0.1.0
Updated: 2026-05-10T00:00:00Z
Canonical URL: /workbench/issues/actual-policy-differs-from-declared-policy/

## Summary

The policy the AI or workflow actually follows differs from the policy that is documented, declared, displayed, or expected.

## Category

- CAT-0060 — Rules & Policies
  - URL: /workbench/categories/rules-and-policies/
  - Summary: Problems where prompts, policies, rules, roles, constraints, or declared behavior conflict, drift, duplicate each other, or fail to match actual behavior.

## Primary Pattern

- PAT-0190 — Contract Drift
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/contract-drift/
  - Summary: A structural condition where a declared contract changes but connected structures, implementations, consumers, or expectations do not update in sync.

## Declared Patterns

- PAT-0190 — Contract Drift
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/contract-drift/
  - Summary: A structural condition where a declared contract changes but connected structures, implementations, consumers, or expectations do not update in sync.
- PAT-0240 — Authority-State Mismatch
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/authority-state-mismatch/
  - Summary: A structural condition where observed system state no longer aligns with the declared authority state that is supposed to govern it.
- PAT-0380 — Silent Mutation
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/silent-mutation/
  - Summary: A structural condition where a change occurs without a corresponding declared update, authority update, or version change.

## Derived Primary Lenses

- LEN-0170 — Convergence Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/convergence-lens/
  - Summary: Compares parallel structural systems to determine whether they align under shared authority.
- LEN-0180 — Determinism Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/determinism-lens/
  - Summary: Evaluates whether identical structural inputs produce equivalent structural outputs across repeated executions.
- LEN-0270 — Reconciliation Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/reconciliation-lens/
  - Summary: Evaluates whether structural changes align with declared authority updates, version changes, or reconciliation rules.
- LEN-0280 — Reference Stability Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/reference-stability-lens/
  - Summary: Evaluates whether structural references, identifiers, nodes, and edges remain consistent across execution cycles or comparable states.

## Derived Secondary Lenses

- LEN-0260 — Provenance Trace Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/provenance-trace-lens/
  - Summary: Attaches stable lineage to structural regions by mapping origin, reference history, and transformation path.

## Search Intents

- actual policy differs from declared policy
- AI behavior does not match policy
- documented policy differs from actual behavior
- policy says one thing AI does another
- declared policy not followed
- runtime policy differs from docs