PAT-0290 - Divergent Outputs

A structural condition where parallel evaluations under comparable scope and shared authority produce non-equivalent outputs.

Primary Lenses

LEN-0170 - Convergence Lens
Compares parallel structural systems to determine whether they align under shared authority.
LEN-0290 - Variance / Entropy Lens
Measures structural variability across repeated or comparable evaluations and identifies divergence beyond expected bounds.

LEN-0180 - Determinism Lens
Evaluates whether identical structural inputs produce equivalent structural outputs across repeated executions.
LEN-0140 - Compression Lens
Reduces structural graphs into stable minimal representations for comparison, redundancy detection, and diffing.

Results Vary Too Much
Repeated or comparable runs produce outputs that vary more than the task, workflow, or user can tolerate.
Same Instructions Allow Different Outputs
The same instructions are broad or underspecified enough to allow materially different outputs that all appear compliant.

One Prompt Carries Too Many Meanings
A single prompt carries too many meanings, goals, roles, constraints, or implied tasks for the AI to interpret consistently.
Output Breaks After Model Change
Output that previously worked begins failing after a model, mode, runtime, or product behavior changes.
Parallel Reviews Never Agree
Parallel AI, human, workflow, or tool reviews keep producing different results without resolving into a shared decision state.
Prompt Behavior Changed Without Version Change
A prompt begins producing different behavior even though no prompt version, model version, workflow version, or declared dependency change is recorded.
Prompt Has Too Many Valid Interpretations
The prompt allows too many reasonable interpretations, causing the AI to choose among valid paths without enough guidance.
Prompt Only Works After Retry
The prompt fails, misroutes, or produces an unusable response on one attempt but works after retry without a meaningful change to the input.
Similar Cases Route to Different Outcomes
Similar inputs, cases, prompts, or workflow states are routed to different outcomes without a declared difference that explains the split.
Validation Result Changes on Retry
A validation, grading, review, classification, or pass/fail result changes after retry even though the input and declared validation rules did not change.

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

Promoted reviewed Pattern ontology entry: Divergent Outputs.

Receipt impact: None