Merge Step Leaves Unresolved Differences

A merge, reconciliation, or consolidation step combines outputs or reviews but leaves important differences unresolved.

What This Looks Like

The workflow tries to merge multiple outputs, reviews, drafts, decisions, or tool results, but the merged result still contains unresolved differences. Conflicting statements may remain side by side, one branch may be dropped without explanation, or the final output may hide rather than resolve the disagreement.

Why It Matters

Merge steps are supposed to reduce divergence. If the merge leaves differences unresolved, the workflow may appear complete while still carrying conflict into the final output. Users then have to discover and reconcile differences manually.

Structural Signal

A reconciliation step exists, but it does not produce a coherent shared state. The issue is not that multiple inputs disagree; it is that the merge step fails to resolve or preserve those differences in an explicit way.

Common Triggers

The workflow merges text without comparing claims or decisions
No rule declares which source wins when inputs conflict
The AI summarizes disagreement instead of resolving it
Parallel reviews use incompatible criteria
The merge step drops provenance needed to explain differences
Conflicts are hidden inside a polished final answer

When to Use This Issue

Use this Issue when a merge or reconciliation step leaves important differences unresolved after it was supposed to produce a usable shared result.

When Not to Use This Issue

Do not use this Issue when the workflow intentionally preserves alternatives for human choice. Do not use it when there is no merge step. This Issue applies when the merge is supposed to resolve and does not.

Primary Pattern

PAT-0320 — Convergence Failure

Declared Patterns

PAT-0320 — Convergence Failure
A structural condition where sequential or parallel states fail to resolve into an equivalent or coherent structure under shared authority and constraints.
PAT-0220 — Authority Merge Conflict
A structural condition where multiple authority states are combined over a shared scope without a declared merge, precedence, or reconciliation rule.
PAT-0310 — Orphaned Structure
A structural condition where a node, region, object, state, or declaration exists without linkage to the governing graph or integration pathway.

Derived Primary Lenses

LEN-0100 — Absence Lens
Detects structurally required elements that are missing from the observed structure.
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-0270 — Reconciliation Lens
Evaluates whether structural changes align with declared authority updates, version changes, or reconciliation rules.

Derived Secondary Lenses

LEN-0110 — Authority Overlay Lens
Maps declared authority hierarchies onto observed structure to detect absence, override, or conflict.
LEN-0250 — Propagation Lens
Traces how structural declarations, effects, or state changes propagate across boundaries or stages.
LEN-0290 — Variance / Entropy Lens
Measures structural variability across repeated or comparable evaluations and identifies divergence beyond expected bounds.

Search Intents

merge step leaves unresolved differences
AI merge did not resolve differences
review merge left conflicts
consolidated answer still has contradictions
merge step failed to reconcile
unresolved differences after merge

Ontology Metadata

Code: ISS-0084
Version: ISS-0084@0.1.0
Ontology release: 0.1.0
Updated: 2026-05-10T00:00:00Z

History

No public history entries recorded.

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