# Single Step Carries Too Many Decisions

## Ontology Metadata

Code: ISS-0103
Version: ISS-0103@0.1.0
Ontology release: 0.1.0
Updated: 2026-05-10T00:00:00Z
Canonical URL: /workbench/issues/single-step-carries-too-many-decisions/

## Summary

One prompt, workflow step, review stage, or agent action carries too many decisions for the system or user to evaluate cleanly.

## Category

- CAT-0140 — Duplication & Overload
  - URL: /workbench/categories/duplication-and-overload/
  - Summary: Problems where fields, sections, rules, checks, prompts, workflow steps, or review queues become duplicated, overloaded, bottlenecked, or carry too many meanings.

## Primary Pattern

- PAT-0270 — Density Spike
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/density-spike/
  - Summary: A structural condition where nodes, edges, dependencies, decisions, or effects concentrate sharply within a localized region beyond declared thresholds.

## Declared Patterns

- PAT-0270 — Density Spike
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/density-spike/
  - Summary: A structural condition where nodes, edges, dependencies, decisions, or effects concentrate sharply within a localized region beyond declared thresholds.
- PAT-0400 — Unbounded Scope
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/unbounded-scope/
  - Summary: A structural condition where an operation, authority, rule, or expansion has no declared upper bound, boundary, or termination condition.
- PAT-0120 — Missing Authority
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/missing-authority/
  - Summary: A structural condition where a region, action, state, or decision path exists without a declared governing authority.

## Derived Primary Lenses

- LEN-0100 — Absence Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/absence-lens/
  - Summary: Detects structurally required elements that are missing from the observed structure.
- 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-0140 — Compression Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/compression-lens/
  - Summary: Reduces structural graphs into stable minimal representations for comparison, redundancy detection, and diffing.
- LEN-0160 — Constraint Sufficiency Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/constraint-sufficiency-lens/
  - Summary: Evaluates whether declared constraints are sufficient to eliminate structural degrees of freedom.
- 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-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.

## Derived Secondary Lenses

- LEN-0150 — Conflict Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/conflict-lens/
  - Summary: Detects mutually incompatible constraints, claims, states, or declarations that cannot be simultaneously satisfied.
- LEN-0190 — Escalation Gradient Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/escalation-gradient-lens/
  - Summary: Measures structural growth or intensification across sequential executions, states, or transitions.
- 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

- single step carries too many decisions
- AI workflow step overloaded
- one step has too many decisions
- prompt asks for too many decisions
- review step overloaded
- AI step carries too much responsibility