# LEN-0160 — Constraint Sufficiency Lens

## Ontology Metadata

Code: LEN-0160
Version: LEN-0160@0.1.0
Ontology release: 0.1.0
Updated: 2026-05-10T00:00:00Z
Canonical URL: /workbench/lenses/constraint-sufficiency-lens/

## Summary

Evaluates whether declared constraints are sufficient to eliminate structural degrees of freedom.

## Primary Pattern Matches

- 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.
- 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.

## Secondary Pattern Matches

- PAT-0280 — Density Vacuum
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/density-vacuum/
  - Summary: A structural condition where a region expected to contain sufficient nodes, edges, coverage, or relationships falls below declared density thresholds.

## Related Issues

- ISS-0009 — AI Adds Work Not Requested
  - URL: /workbench/issues/ai-adds-work-not-requested/
  - Summary: The AI adds tasks, steps, analysis, checks, changes, or follow-up work that the user did not ask for.
- ISS-0029 — AI Forgets Earlier Constraints
  - URL: /workbench/issues/ai-forgets-earlier-constraints/
  - Summary: A constraint, instruction, preference, or decision that should persist through the task stops affecting later output.
- ISS-0045 — AI Touches Unrelated Scope
  - URL: /workbench/issues/ai-touches-unrelated-scope/
  - Summary: The AI affects, edits, analyzes, changes, or reasons over material outside the scope of the requested task.
- ISS-0002 — Answer Has No Traceable Source Link
  - URL: /workbench/issues/answer-has-no-traceable-source-link/
  - Summary: 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.
- ISS-0010 — Answer Has Too Many Paths
  - URL: /workbench/issues/answer-has-too-many-paths/
  - Summary: The answer presents too many possible paths, interpretations, options, or next steps without enough structure to choose among them.
- ISS-0077 — Diagnostic Area Has No Coverage
  - URL: /workbench/issues/diagnostic-area-has-no-coverage/
  - Summary: A known diagnostic area, failure mode, requirement, or review dimension has no Issue, check, rubric item, or workflow coverage.
- ISS-0081 — Evaluation Rubric Has Coverage Gap
  - URL: /workbench/issues/evaluation-rubric-has-coverage-gap/
  - Summary: An evaluation rubric, grading standard, or review checklist leaves part of the required evaluation space uncovered.
- ISS-0014 — Fallback Authority Is Missing
  - URL: /workbench/issues/fallback-authority-is-missing/
  - Summary: The system does not declare who or what has authority when the primary owner, rule, tool, source, or decision path is unavailable or inconclusive.
- ISS-0028 — Format Rule Too Weak
  - URL: /workbench/issues/format-rule-too-weak/
  - Summary: The format instruction is too vague, incomplete, or optional to reliably produce output that satisfies the expected structure.
- ISS-0023 — Hallucinated Fields
  - URL: /workbench/issues/hallucinated-fields/
  - Summary: The AI adds fields, keys, attributes, columns, or structured elements that were not declared, requested, or allowed by the expected schema.
- ISS-0021 — Invalid JSON Output
  - URL: /workbench/issues/invalid-json-output/
  - Summary: The AI returns malformed JSON or structured output that cannot be parsed.
- ISS-0074 — Missing Fallback for Unavailable Information
  - URL: /workbench/issues/missing-fallback-for-unavailable-information/
  - Summary: The task does not declare what the AI should do when required information, sources, tools, fields, or evidence are unavailable.
- ISS-0022 — Missing Required Fields
  - URL: /workbench/issues/missing-required-fields/
  - Summary: The AI returns structured output that omits fields required by the schema, workflow, parser, form, or downstream consumer.
- ISS-0104 — One Prompt Carries Too Many Meanings
  - URL: /workbench/issues/one-prompt-carries-too-many-meanings/
  - Summary: A single prompt carries too many meanings, goals, roles, constraints, or implied tasks for the AI to interpret consistently.
- ISS-0060 — Output Exceeds Length Limit
  - URL: /workbench/issues/output-exceeds-length-limit/
  - Summary: The AI output exceeds a declared length, token, word, character, section, field, or size limit.
- ISS-0079 — Policy Area Has No Examples
  - URL: /workbench/issues/policy-area-has-no-examples/
  - Summary: A policy, rule, standard, or guidance area has no examples showing how it should apply to real cases.
- ISS-0090 — Policy Decision Depends on Itself
  - URL: /workbench/issues/policy-decision-depends-on-itself/
  - Summary: A policy decision requires the outcome of the same policy decision before it can be made.
- ISS-0076 — Prompt Does Not Say What to Exclude
  - URL: /workbench/issues/prompt-does-not-say-what-to-exclude/
  - Summary: The prompt declares what to include but does not declare what should be excluded, allowing unwanted scope, sources, content, or actions into the result.
- ISS-0071 — Prompt Has Too Many Valid Interpretations
  - URL: /workbench/issues/prompt-has-too-many-valid-interpretations/
  - Summary: The prompt allows too many reasonable interpretations, causing the AI to choose among valid paths without enough guidance.
- ISS-0005 — Prompt Only Works After Retry
  - URL: /workbench/issues/prompt-only-works-after-retry/
  - Summary: The prompt fails, misroutes, or produces an unusable response on one attempt but works after retry without a meaningful change to the input.
- ISS-0080 — Relationship Map Has Missing Links
  - URL: /workbench/issues/relationship-map-has-missing-links/
  - Summary: A map of related Issues, rules, patterns, cases, fields, tools, or workflow steps is missing links needed to navigate or reason over the structure.
- ISS-0068 — Repeated Constraints Create Confusion
  - URL: /workbench/issues/repeated-constraints-create-confusion/
  - Summary: Repeated constraints, instructions, limits, or exclusions make the task harder to interpret instead of clearer.
- ISS-0063 — Results Vary Too Much
  - URL: /workbench/issues/results-vary-too-much/
  - Summary: Repeated or comparable runs produce outputs that vary more than the task, workflow, or user can tolerate.
- ISS-0075 — Review Rubric Missing Required Criteria
  - URL: /workbench/issues/review-rubric-missing-required-criteria/
  - Summary: A review rubric, grading rule, evaluation checklist, or classification standard lacks criteria required to make the review reliable.
- ISS-0072 — Same Instructions Allow Different Outputs
  - URL: /workbench/issues/same-instructions-allow-different-outputs/
  - Summary: The same instructions are broad or underspecified enough to allow materially different outputs that all appear compliant.
- ISS-0033 — Saved Memory Not Used
  - URL: /workbench/issues/saved-memory-not-used/
  - Summary: A saved memory, preference, instruction, or durable context item exists but does not affect the AI output when it should.
- ISS-0103 — Single Step Carries Too Many Decisions
  - 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.
- ISS-0011 — Task Has No Clear Limit
  - 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.
- ISS-0061 — Too Many Tool Calls
  - URL: /workbench/issues/too-many-tool-calls/
  - Summary: The AI or agent makes more tool calls, searches, retrievals, API calls, or integration actions than the task requires or permits.
- ISS-0020 — Tool Exists but Required Inputs Are Missing
  - URL: /workbench/issues/tool-exists-but-required-inputs-are-missing/
  - Summary: 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.
- ISS-0078 — Workflow Stage Has Too Few Checks
  - URL: /workbench/issues/workflow-stage-has-too-few-checks/
  - Summary: A workflow stage lacks enough checks, gates, criteria, or review conditions to safely support the work it controls.
- ISS-0013 — Workflow Step Has No Decision Owner
  - URL: /workbench/issues/workflow-step-has-no-decision-owner/
  - Summary: A workflow step requires a decision, approval, judgment, or routing choice, but no owner is declared for making it.
- ISS-0073 — Workflow Step Lacks Required Conditions
  - URL: /workbench/issues/workflow-step-lacks-required-conditions/
  - Summary: A workflow step can run, route, approve, reject, or continue without the required conditions being declared or checked.