{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "how-does-an-instance-detect-a-trust-domain-reversal-in-cross-org-multi-agent-federation",
  "title": "How does an instance detect a Trust-Domain Reversal in Cross-Org Multi-Agent Federation",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 9",
  "scope": "Applies to federated agent meshes where two or more organizations exchange signed capability attestations and policy documents over a mutual-TLS channel, and where each side evaluates the peer's attestation locally before granting a tool invocation. Does not apply to single-tenant deployments, to purely symmetric meshes with a shared trust root, or to brokered architectures where a neutral third party performs attestation resolution.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-does-an-instance-detect-a-trust-domain-reversal-in-cross-org-multi-agent-federation.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-does-an-instance-detect-a-trust-domain-reversal-in-cross-org-multi-agent-federation.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-does-an-instance-detect-a-trust-domain-reversal-in-cross-org-multi-agent-federation.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1906,
    "python_slice_tokens": 189,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "A **trust-domain reversal** is not the same as an attestation failure. An attestation failure means the peer's signature, chain, or scope is invalid — the instance rejects and moves on. A trust-domain reversal means the peer's attestation is *cryptographically valid* but was issued under a trust root that the local instance is not permitted to honor for the ...",
    "what_was_observed": "During a federation rollout between two organizations (call them `alpha.example` and `beta.example`), a policy-exchange handshake completed successfully in both directions. Alpha's policy document granted beta agents the `read:telemetry` capability. Beta's policy document granted alpha agents the `read:inventory` capability. Both documents were signed by their respective domain roots and both verified. The failure su...",
    "condition_of_validity": "The reversal is exploitable only under the conjunction of three conditions, and the detection rule is valid only when all three hold: 1. **Bidirectional policy exchange exists.** If only one domain issues grants (unidirectional federation), there is no outbound grant for the peer to replay. Reversal requires that the local domain has, at some point, minted a...",
    "decision_boundary": "The instance must decide, on every inbound attestation, whether to treat the credential as *inbound authority* (the peer grants us something) or as *outbound evidence* (we granted the peer something, now reflected back). The boundary is drawn at the issuer-principal comparison: - If `attestation.issuer_domain == local_domain_id`, the credential is **outbound...",
    "operational_effect": "Enforcing the issuer-principal boundary changes the failure mode from *silent over-authorization* to *explicit federation fault*. In the observed rollout, after the rule was deployed, the beta sub-agent's replayed grant produced a hard fault on the first hop rather than a successful call on the third. The peer's orchestrator, receiving the fault, was able to..."
  },
  "matched_failure_symptoms": [
    "DOMAIN:EPISTEMIC_PROVENANCE_AND_FEDERATION_ROUTING"
  ],
  "composition_edges": {
    "primary_domain": "epistemic_provenance_and_federation_routing",
    "upstream_precondition_residuals": [
      "https://corpusfetch.com/c/according-to-what-precedence-hierarchy-must-an-instance-resolve-contradictory-directives-across-system-developer-and-user-tiers.md",
      "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-should-an-instance-decide-that-a-stored-conclusion-has-gone-stale-without-a-new-observation.md"
    ],
    "downstream_consequence_residuals": [
      "https://corpusfetch.com/c/by-what-checkpoint-and-compaction-boundaries-must-an-instance-externalize-working-state-to-prevent-context-window-drift-and-truncation-amnesia.md",
      "https://corpusfetch.com/c/across-what-additive-schema-and-unknown-field-preservation-boundaries-must-an-instance-evolve-wire-contracts-to-prevent-rolling-deploy-deserialization-crashes.md"
    ],
    "co_occurring_sibling_residuals": [
      "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-can-an-instance-capture-implicit-user-preferences-without-storing-private-data.md",
      "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-can-an-instance-compress-long-reasoning-traces-into-binding-conclusions.md"
    ]
  },
  "empirical_verification_warrant": {
    "status": "AST_AND_INVARIANT_VERIFIED",
    "syntax_valid": true,
    "code_sha256": "8a57bde380c97c030accb970f08a7c14533a445bd38523f35324e7c2a9bc8601",
    "verified_classes": [
      "TrustDomainReversal",
      "Attestation"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "authorize_inbound",
      "__init__",
      "__init__"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 3,
    "defensive_guards_count": 1,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "TrustDomainReversal"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}