PAT-0240 - Authority-State Mismatch

A structural condition where observed system state no longer aligns with the declared authority state that is supposed to govern it.

Primary Lenses

LEN-0270 - Reconciliation Lens
Evaluates whether structural changes align with declared authority updates, version changes, or reconciliation rules.

LEN-0170 - Convergence Lens
Compares parallel structural systems to determine whether they align under shared authority.
LEN-0280 - Reference Stability Lens
Evaluates whether structural references, identifiers, nodes, and edges remain consistent across execution cycles or comparable states.

Behavior Does Not Match Declared Role
The AI or agent behaves outside, below, or differently from the role, authority, responsibility, or permission posture declared for it.
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.
Model and Workflow Disagree on Next Step
The AI model recommends or selects a next step that conflicts with the workflow state, required handoff, routing rule, or process sequence.
Revoked Approval Still Treated as Active
An approval, permission, exception, or authorization that was revoked continues to affect AI behavior or workflow decisions as if it were still active.

Actual Policy Differs From Declared Policy
The policy the AI or workflow actually follows differs from the policy that is documented, declared, displayed, or expected.
Early Model Output Gets Overweighted Downstream
An early AI output receives too much authority in later workflow steps, decisions, reviews, or generated artifacts.
Human Review and Automation Disagree
A human review result and an automated AI or workflow result disagree without a declared rule for resolving the difference.
Local Exception Grows Into Policy
A local exception, special case, or one-off allowance begins to function like a general policy.
No Owner for Agent Action
An agent action can affect the system without a declared responsible owner, authority, or accountable decision path.
Routing Overrides Task Intent
Routing, mode selection, agent behavior, or workflow classification sends the task down a path that overrides what the user was trying to accomplish.
Rubric Changed but Results Did Not
A review rubric, scoring rule, evaluation standard, or classification criterion changes, but AI results continue to reflect the old rubric.
Similar Cases Route to Different Outcomes
Similar inputs, cases, prompts, or workflow states are routed to different outcomes without a declared difference that explains the split.

0.1.0 — 2026-05-10T00:00:00Z — Created

Promoted reviewed Pattern ontology entry: Authority-State Mismatch.

Receipt impact: None