Issue
Cannot Identify Authoritative State
The user or workflow cannot tell which state, version, review result, decision, source, or output is currently authoritative.
What This Looks Like
The user cannot tell which output, decision, review result, source, version, record, or workflow state is authoritative. Multiple candidates may exist, or the system may show a state without making clear whether it is draft, final, superseded, approved, rejected, or still pending.
Why It Matters
Workflows need a current authority state. If the authoritative state cannot be identified, users may act on stale output, re-review settled work, ignore a valid decision, or pass the wrong version downstream. This can create loops because no one knows what state should govern the next step.
Structural Signal
There are multiple possible states, but the system does not expose which one governs. The issue is not simply that information is missing; it is that authority over the current state is unclear or mismatched.
Common Triggers
- Draft, final, and reviewed states are not labeled clearly
- Multiple outputs survive without a supersession rule
- A review result is stored separately from the artifact it governs
- Version history exists but the current version is not marked
- Human and automated decisions produce competing states
- References point to objects without indicating their authority status
When to Use This Issue
Use this Issue when the user or workflow cannot identify which state, decision, output, source, review, or version is currently authoritative.
When Not to Use This Issue
Do not use this Issue when the authoritative state is clear but wrong. Do not use it when the issue is merely a missing owner. This Issue applies when the governing state itself cannot be identified.
Category
Primary Pattern
Declared Patterns
Authority-State Mismatch
A structural condition where observed system state no longer aligns with the declared authority state that is supposed to govern it.
Missing Authority
A structural condition where a region, action, state, or decision path exists without a declared governing authority.
Reference Instability
A structural condition where references, identifiers, links, or anchors change across equivalent evaluations without a declared cause.
Derived Primary Lenses
Absence Lens
Detects structurally required elements that are missing from the observed structure.
Authority Overlay Lens
Maps declared authority hierarchies onto observed structure to detect absence, override, or conflict.
Reconciliation Lens
Evaluates whether structural changes align with declared authority updates, version changes, or reconciliation rules.
Reference Stability Lens
Evaluates whether structural references, identifiers, nodes, and edges remain consistent across execution cycles or comparable states.
Derived Secondary Lenses
Conflict Lens
Detects mutually incompatible constraints, claims, states, or declarations that cannot be simultaneously satisfied.
Convergence Lens
Compares parallel structural systems to determine whether they align under shared authority.
Determinism Lens
Evaluates whether identical structural inputs produce equivalent structural outputs across repeated executions.
Search Intents
- cannot identify authoritative state
- AI cannot tell which version is final
- authoritative output unclear
- which decision is current
- workflow state not authoritative
- AI review state unclear