# Rules the data never enforces

Prompt · Correctness and reliability · R03

Finds the rules everyone assumes (one owner per task, no negative balance) that nothing actually checks.

## Prompt

```text
Identify business invariants the system assumes but never enforces. Find the appropriate enforcement point and develop tests that attempt to violate them.
```

**What it returns:** Each invariant, where it is assumed, where it could be enforced (constraint, schema, server check) and a test that breaks it today.

**Skip it when:** Rules the database itself already enforces.

**Tools:** Repository; a test database or branch copy.

**Changes:** Adds a test that shows it

**Sessions:** One session

## Skills

- [tdd](https://atlasscope.dev/skills/tdd): Test-driven development.

## Related

- [Status hidden in a pile of flags](https://atlasscope.dev/prompts/status-hidden-in-a-pile-of-flags): Finds features whose real status is spread across a pile of yes/no flags, so combinations that should be impossible can happen.
- [Tests that can't fail](https://atlasscope.dev/prompts/tests-that-cant-fail): Finds tests that pass no matter what.

Source: https://atlasscope.dev/prompts/rules-the-data-never-enforces