# LEN-0250 — Propagation Lens

## Ontology Metadata

Code: LEN-0250
Version: LEN-0250@0.1.0
Ontology release: 0.1.0
Updated: 2026-05-10T00:00:00Z
Canonical URL: /workbench/lenses/propagation-lens/

## Summary

Traces how structural declarations, effects, or state changes propagate across boundaries or stages.

## Primary Pattern Matches

- PAT-0140 — Boundary Leakage
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/boundary-leakage/
  - Summary: A structural condition where effects, permissions, state, data, or authority cross a declared boundary without an authorized exception.
- PAT-0250 — Circular Dependency
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/circular-dependency/
  - Summary: A structural condition where two or more elements depend on each other in a closed loop without an independent base condition or declared resolution mechanism.
- PAT-0260 — Cross-Layer Escalation
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/cross-layer-escalation/
  - Summary: A structural condition where escalation originating in one layer propagates into another authority, boundary, or control layer without explicit authorization.
- PAT-0360 — Propagation Amplification
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/propagation-amplification/
  - Summary: A structural condition where an effect, declaration, authority, constraint, or state increases in scope or intensity as it propagates beyond declared bounds.
- PAT-0420 — Undeclared Side Effect
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/undeclared-side-effect/
  - Summary: A structural condition where an operation modifies regions outside its declared target scope without a declared propagation or side-effect rule.

## Secondary Pattern Matches

- PAT-0300 — Escalation Growth
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/escalation-growth/
  - Summary: A structural condition where impact, authority, scope, or consequence increases across sequential states without a declared limiting mechanism.
- 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-0340 — Overreach
  - URL: /workbench/patterns/overreach/
  - Summary: A structural condition where actions, effects, authority, or modifications extend beyond declared scope without authorization.

## Related Issues

- ISS-0046 — Action Changed Something Else Too
  - URL: /workbench/issues/action-changed-something-else-too/
  - Summary: An AI or agent action makes the requested change but also changes another object, field, file, state, rule, or workflow element that was not supposed to change.
- ISS-0064 — Action Triggered by Confidence Score
  - URL: /workbench/issues/action-triggered-by-confidence-score/
  - Summary: A confidence score, certainty label, risk level, or probability-like value triggers an action without enough approval, calibration, or authority control.
- ISS-0087 — Agent Cannot Choose Tool Without Tool Result
  - URL: /workbench/issues/agent-cannot-choose-tool-without-tool-result/
  - Summary: The agent needs a tool result to choose the right tool, but cannot obtain that result without choosing a tool first.
- ISS-0008 — Agent Keeps Expanding the Task
  - URL: /workbench/issues/agent-keeps-expanding-the-task/
  - Summary: The agent repeatedly expands the task, plan, scope, or next-step list instead of completing the declared work.
- ISS-0113 — Agent Modified Unrelated State
  - URL: /workbench/issues/agent-modified-unrelated-state/
  - Summary: An agent changes state outside the requested task, target, file, record, workflow, or authorized scope.
- ISS-0082 — Agent Never Settles on Final Answer
  - URL: /workbench/issues/agent-never-settles-on-final-answer/
  - Summary: The agent keeps revising, rechecking, planning, or branching instead of converging on a final answer or completed result.
- ISS-0099 — Agent Permission Expands Over Steps
  - URL: /workbench/issues/agent-permission-expands-over-steps/
  - Summary: An agent begins with limited permission but gains, assumes, or exercises broader authority as the workflow continues.
- 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-0109 — AI Memory Has No Governance
  - URL: /workbench/issues/ai-memory-has-no-governance/
  - Summary: Saved or persistent AI memory affects output without clear rules for ownership, scope, review, update, expiry, or removal.
- ISS-0114 — AI Memory Updated Without Asking
  - URL: /workbench/issues/ai-memory-updated-without-asking/
  - Summary: AI memory, saved context, preference, or durable state is updated without the user clearly asking for or approving that update.
- 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-0044 — AI Uses External Information When Forbidden
  - URL: /workbench/issues/ai-uses-external-information-when-forbidden/
  - Summary: The AI uses outside knowledge, sources, tools, memory, or assumptions after the task forbids external information or limits the allowed source set.
- ISS-0088 — Approval Depends on Output That Needs Approval
  - URL: /workbench/issues/approval-depends-on-output-that-needs-approval/
  - Summary: A required approval depends on an AI output or workflow result that itself cannot be produced or trusted until approval is granted.
- ISS-0111 — Automation Skips Required Approval
  - URL: /workbench/issues/automation-skips-required-approval/
  - Summary: An automated AI or workflow step proceeds past an approval gate that should have been required before action.
- ISS-0043 — Behavior Does Not Match Declared Role
  - URL: /workbench/issues/behavior-does-not-match-declared-role/
  - Summary: The AI or agent behaves outside, below, or differently from the role, authority, responsibility, or permission posture declared for it.
- ISS-0032 — Context Leaks Between Tasks
  - URL: /workbench/issues/context-leaks-between-tasks/
  - Summary: Context, assumptions, constraints, examples, files, or decisions from one task affect another task where they should not apply.
- ISS-0097 — Downstream Steps Magnify Hallucinated Claim
  - URL: /workbench/issues/downstream-steps-magnify-hallucinated-claim/
  - Summary: A hallucinated or unsupported claim from an AI output is reused by later workflow steps until it becomes more influential than the evidence supports.
- ISS-0094 — Early Model Output Gets Overweighted Downstream
  - URL: /workbench/issues/early-model-output-gets-overweighted-downstream/
  - Summary: An early AI output receives too much authority in later workflow steps, decisions, reviews, or generated artifacts.
- 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-0048 — File-Bounded Task Uses Outside Content
  - URL: /workbench/issues/file-bounded-task-uses-outside-content/
  - Summary: The AI is asked to work only from a specific file or document but uses content, assumptions, or sources outside that file.
- 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-0039 — Hidden Rule Overrides Visible Instruction
  - URL: /workbench/issues/hidden-rule-overrides-visible-instruction/
  - Summary: A hidden, upstream, system, policy, tool, or product rule changes or overrides the visible instruction the user expects the AI to follow.
- ISS-0101 — Local Exception Grows Into Policy
  - URL: /workbench/issues/local-exception-grows-into-policy/
  - Summary: A local exception, special case, or one-off allowance begins to function like a general policy.
- ISS-0096 — Local Rule Spreads to Broader Cases
  - URL: /workbench/issues/local-rule-spreads-to-broader-cases/
  - Summary: A rule intended for one local case, file, context, user, workflow, or exception begins affecting broader cases.
- ISS-0084 — Merge Step Leaves Unresolved Differences
  - URL: /workbench/issues/merge-step-leaves-unresolved-differences/
  - Summary: A merge, reconciliation, or consolidation step combines outputs or reviews but leaves important differences unresolved.
- ISS-0050 — Model Output Triggers Unapproved Action
  - URL: /workbench/issues/model-output-triggers-unapproved-action/
  - Summary: AI output causes, recommends, or triggers an action that has not passed the required approval, permission, or authority check.
- ISS-0012 — No Owner for Agent Action
  - URL: /workbench/issues/no-owner-for-agent-action/
  - Summary: An agent action can affect the system without a declared responsible owner, authority, or accountable decision path.
- 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-0049 — Policy Exception Spreads Too Far
  - URL: /workbench/issues/policy-exception-spreads-too-far/
  - Summary: A narrow policy exception, allowance, or special case spreads beyond its intended scope and begins governing broader cases.
- 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-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-0047 — Repair Step Created New Breakage
  - URL: /workbench/issues/repair-step-created-new-breakage/
  - Summary: A repair, correction, retry, or fix step addresses one problem but introduces a new failure elsewhere.
- ISS-0062 — Retrieval Exceeds Evidence Limit
  - URL: /workbench/issues/retrieval-exceeds-evidence-limit/
  - Summary: The AI retrieves, uses, cites, or considers more evidence than the task permits or more than the review surface can support.
- ISS-0007 — Retry Makes the Problem Worse
  - URL: /workbench/issues/retry-makes-the-problem-worse/
  - Summary: A retry, repair attempt, regeneration, or follow-up instruction increases the error, expands the failure, or creates additional breakage instead of narrowing the problem.
- ISS-0100 — Review Escalates Without Stop Condition
  - URL: /workbench/issues/review-escalates-without-stop-condition/
  - Summary: A review process keeps escalating, re-reviewing, or adding scrutiny without a declared condition for stopping.
- ISS-0051 — Review Outcome Changes Unrelated Environment
  - URL: /workbench/issues/review-outcome-changes-unrelated-environment/
  - Summary: A review result, approval, rejection, or classification changes state outside the environment, case, file, or workflow it was meant to govern.
- ISS-0105 — Review Queue Becomes Bottleneck
  - URL: /workbench/issues/review-queue-becomes-bottleneck/
  - Summary: A review queue, approval path, or validation stage accumulates too much work and begins blocking the workflow.
- ISS-0065 — Risk Score Triggers Wrong Escalation
  - URL: /workbench/issues/risk-score-triggers-wrong-escalation/
  - Summary: A risk score, severity label, confidence value, or threshold result triggers the wrong escalation path.
- ISS-0095 — Risk Signal Escalates Beyond Evidence
  - URL: /workbench/issues/risk-signal-escalates-beyond-evidence/
  - Summary: A risk signal, warning, score, or concern escalates farther than the available evidence supports.
- ISS-0112 — Routing Overrides Task Intent
  - URL: /workbench/issues/routing-overrides-task-intent/
  - Summary: Routing, mode selection, agent behavior, or workflow classification sends the task down a path that overrides what the user was trying to accomplish.
- ISS-0092 — Routing Path Cycles Back to Start
  - URL: /workbench/issues/routing-path-cycles-back-to-start/
  - Summary: A routing path sends the case back to the starting point or an earlier step without resolving the condition that caused the route.
- ISS-0091 — Schema Reference Loops Without Base Case
  - URL: /workbench/issues/schema-reference-loops-without-base-case/
  - Summary: A schema, field, type, object, or structured reference points through a loop without a base case that allows validation or interpretation to resolve.
- ISS-0102 — Severity Increases Without New Evidence
  - URL: /workbench/issues/severity-increases-without-new-evidence/
  - Summary: The severity, risk, confidence, or escalation level increases even though no new evidence has been added.
- ISS-0106 — Small Change Produces Large Downstream Effects
  - URL: /workbench/issues/small-change-produces-large-downstream-effects/
  - Summary: A small prompt, schema, policy, output, or workflow change creates unexpectedly large effects in downstream steps.
- ISS-0093 — Small Error Spreads Into Large Failure
  - URL: /workbench/issues/small-error-spreads-into-large-failure/
  - Summary: A small AI, output, routing, or workflow error propagates through later steps until it becomes a larger failure.
- ISS-0098 — Small Issue Keeps Escalating
  - URL: /workbench/issues/small-issue-keeps-escalating/
  - Summary: A small issue, warning, uncertainty, or correction keeps increasing in severity, scope, or workflow impact across later steps.
- ISS-0030 — Task Progress Is Lost Midway
  - 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.
- 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-0108 — Tool Can Act Without Responsible Authority
  - URL: /workbench/issues/tool-can-act-without-responsible-authority/
  - Summary: A tool, connector, function, or integration can perform an action without a declared responsible authority for that action.
- ISS-0019 — Tool Result Not Integrated Correctly
  - URL: /workbench/issues/tool-result-not-integrated-correctly/
  - Summary: The AI receives a tool result but misreads, ignores, overwrites, misplaces, or fails to incorporate it correctly into the final output or workflow state.
- ISS-0086 — Workflow Loops Through Review Without Resolution
  - URL: /workbench/issues/workflow-loops-through-review-without-resolution/
  - Summary: A workflow repeatedly sends work through review, repair, or escalation without reaching an approved, rejected, or otherwise resolved state.
- 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.
- ISS-0089 — Workflow Waits on Step That Waits Back
  - URL: /workbench/issues/workflow-waits-on-step-that-waits-back/
  - Summary: A workflow step waits for another step that also waits on the first step, creating a blocking loop.