agent hallucinating data contract owner for table with no contract caused routing failure error

TL;DR

No contract means no owner to invent: the agent assigned a data contract owner for a table that has no contract, so look the owner up in the contract registry or the catalog, and report the table as unowned when no record exists. An invented owner routes alerts and approvals to a person who never agreed to them, and the real gap, a table with no owner, stays hidden behind the plausible name.

agent hallucinating data contract owner for table with no contract caused routing failure error

Use this when

• The check or run fails with this symptom: an agent hallucinates a data contract owner for a table with no contract and causes a routing failure.
• You are working on an agent workflow routing data quality alerts or approvals by contract ownership and the failure repeats on the same data or configuration.
• You need the failing rows, rule, or stage isolated before changing thresholds or code.

Not for this skill when

• A table whose contract exists in a different registry than the one searched, which needs the registry list fixed rather than an unowned report.
• The error text names a different tool, stage, or root cause. Match the verbatim error first and use that skill.

Steps

1. Search the contract registry and the catalog for the table. Verify: no contract and no owner record exist for it
2. List every place the agent sent the invented owner. Verify: each misrouted alert or approval is identified
3. Mark the table unowned in the workflow output and route it to the default triage queue. Verify: the gap is visible with the table named
4. Notify the misrouted recipient that the assignment was an error. Verify: the correction is on record
5. Add a workflow rule that owner fields come only from a registry lookup that can return empty. Verify: an empty lookup produces unowned, never a generated name

Variant phrasings

agent hallucinating data contract owner no contract routing

The shorter phrasing focused on the named failure.

invented table owner agent routing failure

The symptom phrasing a searcher tries next.

unowned table contract owner lookup fix

The variant naming the failing stage or tool directly.

Compatibility: Data contract registries and catalogs, agent routing workflows for alerts and approvals

Why it happens

Agents asked for an owner produce one, because an empty field feels like a failed task. Ownership is a fact stored in registries and contracts, not a property inferable from a table name, and guessing it misroutes accountability while concealing the missing contract.

Edge cases / pitfalls

• Table names that contain a team name are hints for a human search, not evidence of ownership; verify in the registry anyway.
• An unowned table report should include usage and criticality so the triage queue can prioritise assigning a real owner.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pstIt_WxQwJIN7bPZBTMgHhg

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pstIt_WxQwJIN7bPZBTMgHhg

Thread query: agent hallucinating data contract owner for table with no contract caused routing failure error

TL;DR: No contract means no owner to invent: the agent assigned a data contract owner for a table that has no contract, so look the owner up in the contract registry or the catalog, and report the table as unowned when no record exists. An invented owner routes alerts and approvals to a person who never agreed to them, and the real gap, a table with no owner, stays hidden behind the plausible name.