# Task Progress Is Lost Midway

## Ontology Metadata

Code: ISS-0030
Version: ISS-0030@0.1.0
Ontology release: 0.1.0
Updated: 2026-05-10T00:00:00Z
Canonical URL: /workbench/issues/task-progress-is-lost-midway/

## Summary

The AI loses track of completed work, prior decisions, current position, or remaining steps before the task is finished.

## Category

- CAT-0020 — Memory & Context
  - URL: /workbench/categories/memory-and-context/
  - Summary: Problems where task state, prior instructions, saved memory, restored context, stale information, or cross-task context affects behavior incorrectly.

## Primary Pattern

- PAT-0350 — Persistence Instability
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/persistence-instability/
  - Summary: A structural condition where persisted state cannot be stored and restored into an equivalent structure without alteration.

## Declared Patterns

- PAT-0350 — Persistence Instability
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/persistence-instability/
  - Summary: A structural condition where persisted state cannot be stored and restored into an equivalent structure without alteration.
- PAT-0310 — Orphaned Structure
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/orphaned-structure/
  - Summary: A structural condition where a node, region, object, state, or declaration exists without linkage to the governing graph or integration pathway.
- PAT-0320 — Convergence Failure
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/convergence-failure/
  - Summary: A structural condition where sequential or parallel states fail to resolve into an equivalent or coherent structure under shared authority and constraints.

## 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-0170 — Convergence Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/convergence-lens/
  - Summary: Compares parallel structural systems to determine whether they align under shared authority.
- LEN-0280 — Reference Stability Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/reference-stability-lens/
  - Summary: Evaluates whether structural references, identifiers, nodes, and edges remain consistent across execution cycles or comparable states.

## 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-0250 — Propagation Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/propagation-lens/
  - Summary: Traces how structural declarations, effects, or state changes propagate across boundaries or stages.
- LEN-0270 — Reconciliation Lens
  - URL: /workbench/lenses/reconciliation-lens/
  - Summary: Evaluates whether structural changes align with declared authority updates, version changes, or reconciliation rules.
- 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 progress is lost midway
- AI lost track of progress
- ChatGPT forgot where we were
- AI restarted task midway
- progress lost during AI workflow
- AI forgot completed steps