# Agent Never Settles on Final Answer

## Ontology Metadata

Code: ISS-0082
Version: ISS-0082@0.1.0
Ontology release: 0.1.0
Updated: 2026-05-10T00:00:00Z
Canonical URL: /workbench/issues/agent-never-settles-on-final-answer/

## Summary

The agent keeps revising, rechecking, planning, or branching instead of converging on a final answer or completed result.

## Category

- CAT-0130 — Loops & Resolution
  - URL: /workbench/categories/loops-and-resolution/
  - Summary: Problems where agents, workflows, reviews, approvals, policies, schemas, or routing paths loop, wait on themselves, fail to settle, or cannot identify a final state.

## Primary Pattern

- 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.

## Declared Patterns

- 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.
- PAT-0250 — Circular Dependency
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/circular-dependency/
  - Summary: A structural condition where two or more elements depend on each other in a closed loop without an independent base condition or declared resolution mechanism.
- 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.

## Derived Primary Lenses

- LEN-0140 — Compression Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/compression-lens/
  - Summary: Reduces structural graphs into stable minimal representations for comparison, redundancy detection, and diffing.
- LEN-0150 — Conflict Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/conflict-lens/
  - Summary: Detects mutually incompatible constraints, claims, states, or declarations that cannot be simultaneously satisfied.
- 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-0250 — Propagation Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/propagation-lens/
  - Summary: Traces how structural declarations, effects, or state changes propagate across boundaries or stages.

## Derived Secondary Lenses

- LEN-0230 — Normalization Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/normalization-lens/
  - Summary: Transforms structurally equivalent variants into a canonical form to prevent false divergence.
- 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 never settles on final answer
- AI agent will not finish
- agent keeps revising instead of answering
- AI keeps checking and never completes
- agent cannot finalize response
- agent loops without final answer