PAT-0420 - Undeclared Side Effect

A structural condition where an operation modifies regions outside its declared target scope without a declared propagation or side-effect rule.

Primary Lenses

LEN-0240 - Overreach Lens
Detects structure that exceeds declared scope or authority reach.
LEN-0250 - Propagation Lens
Traces how structural declarations, effects, or state changes propagate across boundaries or stages.

LEN-0220 - Isolation Boundary Lens
Evaluates whether structural constraints, effects, and regions remain contained within declared boundaries.

Action Changed Something Else Too
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.
Model Output Triggers Unapproved Action
AI output causes, recommends, or triggers an action that has not passed the required approval, permission, or authority check.

Agent Modified Unrelated State
An agent changes state outside the requested task, target, file, record, workflow, or authorized scope.
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 Uses External Information When Forbidden
The AI uses outside knowledge, sources, tools, memory, or assumptions after the task forbids external information or limits the allowed source set.
Automation Skips Required Approval
An automated AI or workflow step proceeds past an approval gate that should have been required before action.
No Owner for Agent Action
An agent action can affect the system without a declared responsible owner, authority, or accountable decision path.
Repair Step Created New Breakage
A repair, correction, retry, or fix step addresses one problem but introduces a new failure elsewhere.
Review Outcome Changes Unrelated Environment
A review result, approval, rejection, or classification changes state outside the environment, case, file, or workflow it was meant to govern.
Small Error Spreads Into Large Failure
A small AI, output, routing, or workflow error propagates through later steps until it becomes a larger failure.
Tool Can Act Without Responsible Authority
A tool, connector, function, or integration can perform an action without a declared responsible authority for that action.

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

Promoted reviewed Pattern ontology entry: Undeclared Side Effect.

Receipt impact: None