# Hidden Rule Overrides Visible Instruction

## Ontology Metadata

Code: ISS-0039
Version: ISS-0039@0.1.0
Ontology release: 0.1.0
Updated: 2026-05-10T00:00:00Z
Canonical URL: /workbench/issues/hidden-rule-overrides-visible-instruction/

## Summary

A hidden, upstream, system, policy, tool, or product rule changes or overrides the visible instruction the user expects the AI to follow.

## 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-0230 — Authority Shadowing
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/authority-shadowing/
  - Summary: A structural condition where a declared authority is functionally overridden by another authority without an explicit override rule.

## Declared Patterns

- PAT-0230 — Authority Shadowing
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/authority-shadowing/
  - Summary: A structural condition where a declared authority is functionally overridden by another authority without an explicit override rule.
- PAT-0100 — Authority Collision
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/authority-collision/
  - Summary: A structural condition where multiple authorities claim governance over the same region without a declared precedence or resolution rule.
- PAT-0140 — Boundary Leakage
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/boundary-leakage/
  - Summary: A structural condition where effects, permissions, state, data, or authority cross a declared boundary without an authorized exception.

## Derived Primary Lenses

- LEN-0110 — Authority Overlay Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/authority-overlay-lens/
  - Summary: Maps declared authority hierarchies onto observed structure to detect absence, override, or conflict.
- LEN-0150 — Conflict Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/conflict-lens/
  - Summary: Detects mutually incompatible constraints, claims, states, or declarations that cannot be simultaneously satisfied.
- LEN-0220 — Isolation Boundary Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/isolation-boundary-lens/
  - Summary: Evaluates whether structural constraints, effects, and regions remain contained within declared boundaries.
- 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-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-0210 — Invariant Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/invariant-lens/
  - Summary: Verifies that declared invariants are structurally enforceable and not contradicted by observed structure.
- LEN-0270 — Reconciliation Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/reconciliation-lens/
  - Summary: Evaluates whether structural changes align with declared authority updates, version changes, or reconciliation rules.

## Search Intents

- hidden rule overrides visible instruction
- AI ignored prompt because hidden rule
- system rule overrides user instruction
- invisible policy changed AI behavior
- hidden instruction affected output
- AI follows rule I cannot see