{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {
    "entry": {
      "id": "abstention-design",
      "kind": "tip",
      "kindLabel": "Tip",
      "title": "Design abstention as a first-class output",
      "body": "If the only valid-looking answer is a filled answer, the model will fill one. Give it a clean way to say unknown, insufficient evidence, unsafe, or needs human review, and make those states useful.",
      "tag": "reliability",
      "date": "2026 · 04 · 03",
      "publishedAt": "2026-04-03",
      "note": null,
      "insight": {
        "aha": "A model fills blanks when the product has no respected way to stop.",
        "tryThis": "Make unknown, partial, blocked, protected-required, and needs-review states valid outputs with next actions.",
        "watchFor": [
          "Schemas where every field must be filled even when evidence is absent",
          "Refusals that leave the user without a useful next step",
          "Unknown states treated as errors instead of designed outcomes"
        ]
      },
      "extended": [
        "Abstention fails when it feels like an error. It works when it is a designed branch with a reason, missing evidence, and next action. The user should know what changed from answerable to not answerable.",
        "Use explicit output states: answered, partial, unknown, blocked, protected-required, and needs-review. Each state should carry what evidence exists and what evidence is missing.",
        "This is how you prevent graceful prose from hiding a dead end. The model can stop without leaving the user stuck."
      ],
      "url": "https://tips.platphormnews.com/entries/abstention-design"
    }
  }
}