# Agent Keeps Expanding the Task

## Ontology Metadata

Code: ISS-0008
Version: ISS-0008@0.1.0
Ontology release: 0.1.0
Updated: 2026-05-10T00:00:00Z
Canonical URL: /workbench/issues/agent-keeps-expanding-the-task/

## Summary

The agent repeatedly expands the task, plan, scope, or next-step list instead of completing the declared work.

## Category

- CAT-0030 — Agents
  - URL: /workbench/categories/agents/
  - Summary: Problems where agent behavior expands, acts outside intent, fails to finish, modifies state, or chooses actions without enough stable control.

## Primary Pattern

- PAT-0410 — Unconstrained Expansion
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/unconstrained-expansion/
  - Summary: A structural condition where a region, process, authority, or effect expands without governing constraints limiting growth.

## Declared Patterns

- PAT-0410 — Unconstrained Expansion
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/unconstrained-expansion/
  - Summary: A structural condition where a region, process, authority, or effect expands without governing constraints limiting growth.
- PAT-0340 — Overreach
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/overreach/
  - Summary: A structural condition where actions, effects, authority, or modifications extend beyond declared scope without authorization.
- PAT-0320 — Convergence Failure
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/convergence-failure/
  - Summary: A structural condition where sequential or parallel states fail to resolve into an equivalent or coherent structure under shared authority and constraints.

## Derived Primary Lenses

- LEN-0120 — Boundary Compliance Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/boundary-compliance-lens/
  - Summary: Evaluates observed structure against declared boundary posture, including allow, block, and exception rules.
- LEN-0140 — Compression Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/compression-lens/
  - Summary: Reduces structural graphs into stable minimal representations for comparison, redundancy detection, and diffing.
- LEN-0170 — Convergence Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/convergence-lens/
  - Summary: Compares parallel structural systems to determine whether they align under shared authority.
- LEN-0190 — Escalation Gradient Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/escalation-gradient-lens/
  - Summary: Measures structural growth or intensification across sequential executions, states, or transitions.
- LEN-0240 — Overreach Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/overreach-lens/
  - Summary: Detects structure that exceeds declared scope or authority reach.

## Derived Secondary Lenses

- LEN-0250 — Propagation Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/propagation-lens/
  - Summary: Traces how structural declarations, effects, or state changes propagate across boundaries or stages.
- 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-0290 — Variance / Entropy Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/variance-entropy-lens/
  - Summary: Measures structural variability across repeated or comparable evaluations and identifies divergence beyond expected bounds.

## Search Intents

- agent keeps expanding the task
- AI keeps adding more steps
- agent keeps making the plan bigger
- AI keeps adding follow up work
- agent expands task on each pass
- diagnosis keeps expanding