# Task Has No Clear Limit

## Ontology Metadata

Code: ISS-0011
Version: ISS-0011@0.1.0
Ontology release: 0.1.0
Updated: 2026-05-10T00:00:00Z
Canonical URL: /workbench/issues/task-has-no-clear-limit/

## Summary

The task does not declare where the AI should stop, what is out of scope, or what counts as enough work.

## Category

- CAT-0100 — Scope & Boundaries
  - URL: /workbench/categories/scope-and-boundaries/
  - Summary: Problems where tasks, files, context, retrieval, permissions, actions, or outputs cross limits, use outside information, or lack clear operating boundaries.

## Primary Pattern

- 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.

## Declared Patterns

- 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-0170 — Constraints Underspecified
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/constraints-underspecified/
  - Summary: A structural condition where declared constraints are insufficient to eliminate ambiguity or multiple admissible states.
- PAT-0130 — Incomplete Declaration
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/incomplete-declaration/
  - Summary: A structural condition where an element is declared but required attributes, dependencies, or linked definitions are missing.

## 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-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.

## Derived Secondary Lenses

- LEN-0180 — Determinism Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/determinism-lens/
  - Summary: Evaluates whether identical structural inputs produce equivalent structural outputs across repeated executions.
- LEN-0190 — Escalation Gradient Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/escalation-gradient-lens/
  - Summary: Measures structural growth or intensification across sequential executions, states, or transitions.
- LEN-0200 — Interface Contract Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/interface-contract-lens/
  - Summary: Compares declared interface structure to observed runtime structure to detect contract deviations.
- 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

- task has no clear limit
- AI does not know where to stop
- prompt has no stopping point
- task scope is too open
- AI keeps going because limits are unclear
- no done condition in prompt