Cannot Identify Authoritative State

The user or workflow cannot tell which state, version, review result, decision, source, or output is currently authoritative.

What This Looks Like

The user cannot tell which output, decision, review result, source, version, record, or workflow state is authoritative. Multiple candidates may exist, or the system may show a state without making clear whether it is draft, final, superseded, approved, rejected, or still pending.

Why It Matters

Workflows need a current authority state. If the authoritative state cannot be identified, users may act on stale output, re-review settled work, ignore a valid decision, or pass the wrong version downstream. This can create loops because no one knows what state should govern the next step.

Structural Signal

There are multiple possible states, but the system does not expose which one governs. The issue is not simply that information is missing; it is that authority over the current state is unclear or mismatched.

Common Triggers

Draft, final, and reviewed states are not labeled clearly
Multiple outputs survive without a supersession rule
A review result is stored separately from the artifact it governs
Version history exists but the current version is not marked
Human and automated decisions produce competing states
References point to objects without indicating their authority status

When to Use This Issue

Use this Issue when the user or workflow cannot identify which state, decision, output, source, review, or version is currently authoritative.

When Not to Use This Issue

Do not use this Issue when the authoritative state is clear but wrong. Do not use it when the issue is merely a missing owner. This Issue applies when the governing state itself cannot be identified.

Primary Pattern

PAT-0240 — Authority-State Mismatch

Declared Patterns

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.
PAT-0120 — Missing Authority
A structural condition where a region, action, state, or decision path exists without a declared governing authority.
PAT-0200 — Reference Instability
A structural condition where references, identifiers, links, or anchors change across equivalent evaluations without a declared cause.

Derived Primary Lenses

LEN-0100 — Absence Lens
Detects structurally required elements that are missing from the observed structure.
LEN-0110 — Authority Overlay Lens
Maps declared authority hierarchies onto observed structure to detect absence, override, or conflict.
LEN-0270 — Reconciliation Lens
Evaluates whether structural changes align with declared authority updates, version changes, or reconciliation rules.
LEN-0280 — Reference Stability Lens
Evaluates whether structural references, identifiers, nodes, and edges remain consistent across execution cycles or comparable states.

Derived Secondary Lenses

LEN-0150 — Conflict Lens
Detects mutually incompatible constraints, claims, states, or declarations that cannot be simultaneously satisfied.
LEN-0170 — Convergence Lens
Compares parallel structural systems to determine whether they align under shared authority.
LEN-0180 — Determinism Lens
Evaluates whether identical structural inputs produce equivalent structural outputs across repeated executions.

Search Intents

cannot identify authoritative state
AI cannot tell which version is final
authoritative output unclear
which decision is current
workflow state not authoritative
AI review state unclear

Ontology Metadata

Code: ISS-0085
Version: ISS-0085@0.1.0
Ontology release: 0.1.0
Updated: 2026-05-10T00:00:00Z

History

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