LEN-0100
Absence Lens
Detects structurally required elements that are missing from the observed structure.
Primary Pattern Matches
Density Vacuum
A structural condition where a region expected to contain sufficient nodes, edges, coverage, or relationships falls below declared density thresholds.
Lens Application
The Absence Lens is a strong inspection mechanism for Density Vacuum because it focuses attention on structurally expected elements that are not observed. It helps compare declared density thresholds against missing nodes, weak coverage, absent links, or relationship gaps in the inspected region.
Inspect For
- Missing required nodes within the region
- Expected edges or relationships not present
- Coverage gaps below declared thresholds
- Sparse areas where structure should be denser
Avoid
Treat missing elements as inspection signals, not conclusive evidence that Density Vacuum is present.
Incomplete Declaration
A structural condition where an element is declared but required attributes, dependencies, or linked definitions are missing.
Lens Application
The Absence Lens is a strong inspection mechanism for Incomplete Declaration because incomplete declarations often appear as missing required fields, absent references, or undeclared dependencies. It supports inspection by highlighting where the structure expects something to exist but the observed declaration leaves it empty, unresolved, or disconnected.
Inspect For
- Required attributes left blank or omitted
- Missing dependency declarations
- References to definitions that do not exist
- Declared elements lacking required links
Avoid
Treat missing structural pieces as inspection signals rather than conclusive evidence that the declaration is defective.
Missing Authority
A structural condition where a region, action, state, or decision path exists without a declared governing authority.
Lens Application
The Absence Lens is a primary inspection mechanism for Missing Authority because it focuses attention on expected governing roles, rules, or ownership that should be present in the structure. It helps surface places where control is implied by activity but not explicitly assigned.
Inspect For
- Decisions with no named owner
- Actions permitted without governing rules
- States lacking approval or escalation authority
- Regions operating without declared oversight
Avoid
Treat missing authority indicators as inspection signals rather than confirmation that Missing Authority has been established.
Orphaned Structure
A structural condition where a node, region, object, state, or declaration exists without linkage to the governing graph or integration pathway.
Lens Application
As a primary lens, the Absence Lens is a strong inspection mechanism for orphaned structure because it focuses attention on missing structural requirements around present nodes, regions, objects, states, or declarations. It helps identify where an element exists but lacks the expected connection into its governing graph or pathway.
Inspect For
- Present elements with no parent, owner, or governing reference
- Nodes or regions excluded from traversal or integration paths
- Declarations without consuming, binding, or resolving structures
- States or objects not reachable from expected graph entry points
Avoid
Treat missing linkage as inspection evidence requiring context, not as a standalone determination that the structure is orphaned.
Related Issues
Action Triggered by Confidence Score
A confidence score, certainty label, risk level, or probability-like value triggers an action without enough approval, calibration, or authority control.
Agent Cannot Choose Tool Without Tool Result
The agent needs a tool result to choose the right tool, but cannot obtain that result without choosing a tool first.
Agent Permission Expands Over Steps
An agent begins with limited permission but gains, assumes, or exercises broader authority as the workflow continues.
AI Memory Has No Governance
Saved or persistent AI memory affects output without clear rules for ownership, scope, review, update, expiry, or removal.
AI Memory Updated Without Asking
AI memory, saved context, preference, or durable state is updated without the user clearly asking for or approving that update.
Answer Has No Traceable Source Link
The answer makes a claim, recommendation, citation, or factual statement without a source link or trace path that allows the user to verify where it came from.
Approval Depends on Output That Needs Approval
A required approval depends on an AI output or workflow result that itself cannot be produced or trusted until approval is granted.
Automation Skips Required Approval
An automated AI or workflow step proceeds past an approval gate that should have been required before action.
Cannot Identify Authoritative State
The user or workflow cannot tell which state, version, review result, decision, source, or output is currently authoritative.
Declared Owner Cannot Control Outcome
A person, role, system, or policy is declared responsible for an outcome but does not have the actual authority or control needed to govern it.
Diagnostic Area Has No Coverage
A known diagnostic area, failure mode, requirement, or review dimension has no Issue, check, rubric item, or workflow coverage.
Evaluation Rubric Has Coverage Gap
An evaluation rubric, grading standard, or review checklist leaves part of the required evaluation space uncovered.
Fallback Authority Is Missing
The system does not declare who or what has authority when the primary owner, rule, tool, source, or decision path is unavailable or inconclusive.
Format Rule Too Weak
The format instruction is too vague, incomplete, or optional to reliably produce output that satisfies the expected structure.
Merge Step Leaves Unresolved Differences
A merge, reconciliation, or consolidation step combines outputs or reviews but leaves important differences unresolved.
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.
Missing Required Fields
The AI returns structured output that omits fields required by the schema, workflow, parser, form, or downstream consumer.
Model Output Triggers Unapproved Action
AI output causes, recommends, or triggers an action that has not passed the required approval, permission, or authority check.
No Owner for Agent Action
An agent action can affect the system without a declared responsible owner, authority, or accountable decision path.
Policy Area Has No Examples
A policy, rule, standard, or guidance area has no examples showing how it should apply to real cases.
Policy Decision Depends on Itself
A policy decision requires the outcome of the same policy decision before it can be made.
Relationship Map Has Missing Links
A map of related Issues, rules, patterns, cases, fields, tools, or workflow steps is missing links needed to navigate or reason over the structure.
Review Queue Becomes Bottleneck
A review queue, approval path, or validation stage accumulates too much work and begins blocking the workflow.
Review Rubric Missing Required Criteria
A review rubric, grading rule, evaluation checklist, or classification standard lacks criteria required to make the review reliable.
Risk Score Triggers Wrong Escalation
A risk score, severity label, confidence value, or threshold result triggers the wrong escalation path.
Risk Signal Escalates Beyond Evidence
A risk signal, warning, score, or concern escalates farther than the available evidence supports.
Saved Memory Not Used
A saved memory, preference, instruction, or durable context item exists but does not affect the AI output when it should.
Severity Increases Without New Evidence
The severity, risk, confidence, or escalation level increases even though no new evidence has been added.
Single Step Carries Too Many Decisions
One prompt, workflow step, review stage, or agent action carries too many decisions for the system or user to evaluate cleanly.
Task Has No Clear Limit
The task does not declare where the AI should stop, what is out of scope, or what counts as enough work.
Task Progress Is Lost Midway
The AI loses track of completed work, prior decisions, current position, or remaining steps before the task is finished.
Tool Can Act Without Responsible Authority
A tool, connector, function, or integration can perform an action without a declared responsible authority for that action.
Tool Exists but Required Inputs Are Missing
A usable tool or integration exists, but the AI or agent does not have the required inputs, permissions, fields, identifiers, or context needed to call it correctly.
Tool Result Not Integrated Correctly
The AI receives a tool result but misreads, ignores, overwrites, misplaces, or fails to incorporate it correctly into the final output or workflow state.
Workflow Stage Has Too Few Checks
A workflow stage lacks enough checks, gates, criteria, or review conditions to safely support the work it controls.
Workflow Step Has No Decision Owner
A workflow step requires a decision, approval, judgment, or routing choice, but no owner is declared for making it.
Workflow Step Lacks Required Conditions
A workflow step can run, route, approve, reject, or continue without the required conditions being declared or checked.
Workflow Waits on Step That Waits Back
A workflow step waits for another step that also waits on the first step, creating a blocking loop.