Fallback Authority Is Missing

The system does not declare who or what has authority when the primary owner, rule, tool, source, or decision path is unavailable or inconclusive.

What This Looks Like

The primary authority, rule, source, tool, reviewer, or decision path is unavailable, unclear, or inconclusive, but the system does not declare what should happen next. The AI may stall, guess, escalate inconsistently, proceed without approval, or loop between options because no fallback authority is defined.

Why It Matters

Fallback authority protects workflows when the normal path fails. Without it, edge cases and unavailable inputs become control failures. The user may not know whether to stop, continue, ask someone else, use a default rule, or treat the result as unresolved.

Structural Signal

A primary authority path exists or is implied, but the structure does not define a valid authority when that path cannot decide. The issue is not that the fallback was used incorrectly; it is that the fallback authority is missing.

Common Triggers

A workflow assumes the primary reviewer, tool, or source will always be available
Escalation rules say to escalate but do not name the authority
The AI is told not to decide but is not told who should decide instead
Approval paths have no default when the approver is absent
Policy conflicts have no declared tie-breaker
The system treats inconclusive evidence as permission to continue

When to Use This Issue

Use this Issue when the normal decision path fails or cannot decide and the system has no declared fallback authority, escalation owner, or stop rule.

When Not to Use This Issue

Do not use this Issue when a fallback exists but the AI ignores it. Do not use it when the user simply wants a second opinion. This Issue applies when the backup authority structure itself is missing.

Primary Pattern

PAT-0120 — Missing Authority

Declared Patterns

PAT-0120 — Missing Authority
A structural condition where a region, action, state, or decision path exists without a declared governing authority.
PAT-0130 — Incomplete Declaration
A structural condition where an element is declared but required attributes, dependencies, or linked definitions are missing.
PAT-0250 — Circular Dependency
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.

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-0150 — Conflict Lens
Detects mutually incompatible constraints, claims, states, or declarations that cannot be simultaneously satisfied.
LEN-0160 — Constraint Sufficiency Lens
Evaluates whether declared constraints are sufficient to eliminate structural degrees of freedom.
LEN-0250 — Propagation Lens
Traces how structural declarations, effects, or state changes propagate across boundaries or stages.

Derived Secondary Lenses

LEN-0200 — Interface Contract Lens
Compares declared interface structure to observed runtime structure to detect contract deviations.
LEN-0230 — Normalization Lens
Transforms structurally equivalent variants into a canonical form to prevent false divergence.
LEN-0270 — Reconciliation Lens
Evaluates whether structural changes align with declared authority updates, version changes, or reconciliation rules.

Search Intents

fallback authority is missing
no fallback approver
AI does not know who decides if primary fails
missing escalation authority
no backup decision owner
workflow has no fallback authority

Ontology Metadata

Code: ISS-0014
Version: ISS-0014@0.1.0
Ontology release: 0.1.0
Updated: 2026-05-10T00:00:00Z

History

No public history entries recorded.

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