LEN-0110 - Authority Overlay Lens
Maps declared authority hierarchies onto observed structure to detect absence, override, or conflict.
Primary Pattern Matches
- PAT-0100 - Authority Collision
A structural condition where multiple authorities claim governance over the same region without a declared precedence or resolution rule.
- PAT-0230 - Authority Shadowing
A structural condition where a declared authority is functionally overridden by another authority without an explicit override rule.
- PAT-0120 - Missing Authority
A structural condition where a region, action, state, or decision path exists without a declared governing authority.
Secondary Pattern Matches
- 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.
Related Issues
- Action Triggered by Confidence Score
A confidence score, certainty label, risk level, or probability-like value triggers an action without enough approval, calibration, or authority control.
- Agent Cannot Choose Tool Without Tool Result
The agent needs a tool result to choose the right tool, but cannot obtain that result without choosing a tool first.
- Agent Gets Conflicting Tool Authority
An agent receives conflicting authority signals about whether, when, or how it may use a tool, connector, function, or integration.
- Agent Permission Expands Over Steps
An agent begins with limited permission but gains, assumes, or exercises broader authority as the workflow continues.
- AI Memory Has No Governance
Saved or persistent AI memory affects output without clear rules for ownership, scope, review, update, expiry, or removal.
- AI Memory Updated Without Asking
AI memory, saved context, preference, or durable state is updated without the user clearly asking for or approving that update.
- Approval Depends on Output That Needs Approval
A required approval depends on an AI output or workflow result that itself cannot be produced or trusted until approval is granted.
- Automation Skips Required Approval
An automated AI or workflow step proceeds past an approval gate that should have been required before action.
- Behavior Does Not Match Declared Role
The AI or agent behaves outside, below, or differently from the role, authority, responsibility, or permission posture declared for it.
- Cannot Identify Authoritative State
The user or workflow cannot tell which state, version, review result, decision, source, or output is currently authoritative.
- Conflicting Instructions From Different Authorities
Instructions from different sources, roles, policies, prompts, tools, or workflow authorities conflict without a clear rule for which one governs.
- Declared Owner Cannot Control Outcome
A person, role, system, or policy is declared responsible for an outcome but does not have the actual authority or control needed to govern it.
- 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.
- Hidden Rule Overrides Visible Instruction
A hidden, upstream, system, policy, tool, or product rule changes or overrides the visible instruction the user expects the AI to follow.
- Human Review and Automation Disagree
A human review result and an automated AI or workflow result disagree without a declared rule for resolving the difference.
- Merge Step Leaves Unresolved Differences
A merge, reconciliation, or consolidation step combines outputs or reviews but leaves important differences unresolved.
- Missing Fallback for Unavailable Information
The task does not declare what the AI should do when required information, sources, tools, fields, or evidence are unavailable.
- Model Output Triggers Unapproved Action
AI output causes, recommends, or triggers an action that has not passed the required approval, permission, or authority check.
- Multiple Policies Say the Same Thing
Multiple policies, rules, or guidance documents express the same requirement, creating redundancy and uncertainty about which one governs.
- No Owner for Agent Action
An agent action can affect the system without a declared responsible owner, authority, or accountable decision path.
- Parallel Reviews Never Agree
Parallel AI, human, workflow, or tool reviews keep producing different results without resolving into a shared decision state.
- Permissions Conflict After Being Combined
Permissions, approvals, roles, policies, or authority rules that seem valid separately conflict when combined in the same workflow or AI action.
- Policy Decision Depends on Itself
A policy decision requires the outcome of the same policy decision before it can be made.
- Risk Score Triggers Wrong Escalation
A risk score, severity label, confidence value, or threshold result triggers the wrong escalation path.
- Risk Signal Escalates Beyond Evidence
A risk signal, warning, score, or concern escalates farther than the available evidence supports.
- Same Case Has Conflicting Policies
The same case appears to be governed by multiple policies, rules, or standards that point to incompatible outcomes.
- Severity Increases Without New Evidence
The severity, risk, confidence, or escalation level increases even though no new evidence has been added.
- 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.
- Tool Can Act Without Responsible Authority
A tool, connector, function, or integration can perform an action without a declared responsible authority for that action.
- Tool Rules and Prompt Rules Conflict
Tool, connector, function, or MCP rules conflict with prompt instructions, causing the AI or agent to face incompatible requirements.
- Workflow Step Has No Decision Owner
A workflow step requires a decision, approval, judgment, or routing choice, but no owner is declared for making it.
Ontology Metadata
- Code
LEN-0110- Version
LEN-0110@0.1.0- Ontology release
- 0.1.0
- Updated
- 2026-05-10T00:00:00Z
History
-
0.1.0 — 2026-05-10T00:00:00Z — Created
Promoted reviewed Lens ontology entry: Authority Overlay Lens.
Receipt impact: None