PAT-0400
Unbounded Scope
A structural condition where an operation, authority, rule, or expansion has no declared upper bound, boundary, or termination condition.
Primary Lenses
Isolation Boundary Lens
Evaluates whether structural constraints, effects, and regions remain contained within declared boundaries.
Lens Application
The Isolation Boundary Lens is a primary inspection mechanism for Unbounded Scope because it focuses attention on whether the scoped operation remains contained within stated regions, roles, systems, or timeframes. It helps surface places where boundaries are missing, permeable, recursive, or overridden in ways that allow expansion beyond intended containment.
Inspect For
- Missing or vague scope limits
- Effects crossing declared regions or roles
- Expansion paths without termination checks
- Boundary exceptions that become normal behavior
Avoid
Treat containment failures as inspection signals rather than confirmation that Unbounded Scope is present.
Constraint Sufficiency Lens
Evaluates whether declared constraints are sufficient to eliminate structural degrees of freedom.
Lens Application
The Constraint Sufficiency Lens is a primary inspection mechanism for Unbounded Scope because it examines whether the constraints around an operation, authority, rule, or expansion actually remove open degrees of freedom. It is especially useful for spotting scope that appears bounded in wording but remains structurally extendable in practice.
Inspect For
- Missing caps, endpoints, or termination triggers
- Broad discretion without limiting criteria
- Expansion clauses without defined thresholds
- Constraints that can be bypassed or reinterpreted
Avoid
Treat insufficient constraint signals as inspection cues rather than confirmation that Unbounded Scope is present.
Secondary Lenses
Escalation Gradient Lens
Measures structural growth or intensification across sequential executions, states, or transitions.
Lens Application
As a secondary lens, the Escalation Gradient Lens helps inspect Unbounded Scope by tracing whether scope increases across sequential states rather than remaining stable or bounded. It supports the pattern indirectly by surfacing growth paths, intensification steps, or repeated expansions that may indicate missing upper limits.
Inspect For
- Repeated scope increases across cycles or executions
- Transitions that widen authority, access, or applicability
- Intensification without stated ceiling or stop condition
- Accumulating reach after each state change
Avoid
Treat escalation patterns as supporting inspection signals, not as confirmation that Unbounded Scope is present without also checking for explicit boundaries, caps, or termination conditions.
Primary Issue Matches
Supporting Issue Matches
AI Adds Work Not Requested
The AI adds tasks, steps, analysis, checks, changes, or follow-up work that the user did not ask for.
AI Touches Unrelated Scope
The AI affects, edits, analyzes, changes, or reasons over material outside the scope of the requested task.
Answer Has Too Many Paths
The answer presents too many possible paths, interpretations, options, or next steps without enough structure to choose among them.
Hallucinated Fields
The AI adds fields, keys, attributes, columns, or structured elements that were not declared, requested, or allowed by the expected schema.
Prompt Does Not Say What to Exclude
The prompt declares what to include but does not declare what should be excluded, allowing unwanted scope, sources, content, or actions into the result.
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.