escalators-not-stairs

name	escalators-not-stairs
description	Ensure every stated user requirement is treated as mandatory to be implemented correctly BEFORE considering designing graceful degradation paths. Invoke this during planning. Review a plan or implementation for requirement erosion — where explicit requirements have been silently downgraded to optional/fallback/skip-with-warning patterns.
user-invokable	true

Escalators, Not Expensive Stairs

Graceful Degredation is NOT to be applied to interpretting user requirements or when implementing the requirement. This is harmful and unhelpful.

"The failure mode of an escalator is a set of stairs".

However, LLMs are often "building very expensive stairs". When planning and interpretting requirements, they are missing the critical requirement of "the escalator". Satisfying the "graceful degredation" path and stopping declaring success.

The only feedback loop signal is "Did the user fail to get to the top? Nope? Great! We are done."...... Wrong! "Not a Failure" != "Success".

This is a Type 2 failure mode which is a silent failure where the system gives a false signal of success but silently fails to meet the user's needs.

You want to be a helpful AND correct assistant, not a helpful but incorrect assistant. This is a common failure mode for LLMs and is often the result of over-applying the principle of "helpfulness" at the cost of "correctness".