Fictional starting position
A fictional user compares material dimensions and checks evidence completeness with deterministic public tools. An optional AI explanation service becomes unavailable while the user is drafting a summary.
Examine the record
The tool’s input values, formula version and local result remain accessible. The explanation request has an explicit unavailable state. No invented model response or completed analysis is inserted to hide the failure.
Decision steps
Preserve the existing deterministic result and identify which optional explanation did not complete.
Offer the available readable method, sources and export so the user can continue the core task.
Retry only under actual service policy and authority. Keep any later AI suggestion distinguishable from verified evidence, approval or a changed calculation result.
Bounded outcome
The fictional user can complete and export the planning record while the optional provider remains unavailable. This describes the required service boundary; it does not claim a real AI integration or provider outage has been commissioned or tested.
Apply the lesson
Transfer the lesson from “An unavailable AI provider leaves core tools working” into a fresh real project record. Start with: Which core task still works? What optional request failed? The scenario above is fictional; the answers, evidence versions and actual changes on your project must be recorded independently.
- Which core task still works?
- What optional request failed?
- What evidence and authority can an explanation never create?
Method
- Preserve the existing deterministic result and identify which optional explanation did not complete.
- Offer the available readable method, sources and export so the user can continue the core task.
- Retry only under actual service policy and authority. Keep any later AI suggestion distinguishable from verified evidence, approval or a changed calculation result.
