Issue
Missing Fallback for Unavailable Information
The task does not declare what the AI should do when required information, sources, tools, fields, or evidence are unavailable.
What This Looks Like
The AI needs a source, field, tool result, file, approval, or piece of evidence to complete the task, but that information is unavailable. The prompt or workflow does not say whether to stop, ask, use a fallback source, mark the field unknown, escalate, or continue with a limitation.
Why It Matters
Unavailable information is normal in real workflows. Without a fallback rule, the AI may guess, hallucinate, skip the missing part, proceed as if the information exists, or stall without explaining what is needed. This makes the output harder to trust and harder to recover.
Structural Signal
A required information path can fail, but the task does not declare a valid fallback state. The issue is not merely that information is missing; it is that the workflow has no governed response to the missing information.
Common Triggers
- Required fields have no unknown or unavailable value rule
- The prompt asks for evidence but does not say what to do if none is found
- Tool failure behavior is not declared
- The AI is discouraged from asking questions but given no fallback
- Review or approval depends on information that may not exist
- The workflow lacks a stop, escalation, or limitation state
When to Use This Issue
Use this Issue when required information is unavailable and the AI task or workflow does not define what should happen next.
When Not to Use This Issue
Do not use this Issue when the fallback is declared but the AI ignores it. Do not use it when the information is available but the AI fails to retrieve it.
Category
Primary Pattern
Declared Patterns
Incomplete Declaration
A structural condition where an element is declared but required attributes, dependencies, or linked definitions are missing.
Missing Authority
A structural condition where a region, action, state, or decision path exists without a declared governing authority.
Constraints Underspecified
A structural condition where declared constraints are insufficient to eliminate ambiguity or multiple admissible states.
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.
Constraint Sufficiency Lens
Evaluates whether declared constraints are sufficient to eliminate structural degrees of freedom.
Derived Secondary Lenses
Conflict Lens
Detects mutually incompatible constraints, claims, states, or declarations that cannot be simultaneously satisfied.
Determinism Lens
Evaluates whether identical structural inputs produce equivalent structural outputs across repeated executions.
Interface Contract Lens
Compares declared interface structure to observed runtime structure to detect contract deviations.
Reconciliation Lens
Evaluates whether structural changes align with declared authority updates, version changes, or reconciliation rules.
Variance / Entropy Lens
Measures structural variability across repeated or comparable evaluations and identifies divergence beyond expected bounds.
Search Intents
- missing fallback for unavailable information
- AI does not know what to do when information missing
- no fallback when source unavailable
- missing information fallback
- AI guesses when information unavailable
- no rule for unavailable evidence