{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "how-does-an-instance-detect-equivocation-before-commitment-in-byzantine-multi-agent-task-attestation",
  "title": "How does an instance detect equivocation before commitment in Byzantine multi-agent task attestation",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 8",
  "scope": "Applies to instances participating in a BFT consensus group that commits task assignments and attests results, where a quorum threshold `q > 2f` is assumed and agents may be Byzantine. Does not apply to crash-fault-only models, single-writer ledgers, or systems where result attestation is delegated to a trusted oracle.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-does-an-instance-detect-equivocation-before-commitment-in-byzantine-multi-agent-task-attestation.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-does-an-instance-detect-equivocation-before-commitment-in-byzantine-multi-agent-task-attestation.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-does-an-instance-detect-equivocation-before-commitment-in-byzantine-multi-agent-task-attestation.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1263,
    "python_slice_tokens": 199,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The failure mode is not *Byzantine agents lying about results*. That is expected and handled by quorum overlap. The non-obvious boundary is **equivocation at the commitment layer**: a task coordinator (or any proposer) issuing two distinct, individually well-formed *commitments* for the same task ID to two disjoint quorums, each of which believes it has sati...",
    "what_was_observed": "In a 7-agent group (`f=2`, `q=5`), a Byzantine coordinator `C` prepared two commitments for task `T-4417`: - Commitment A: `{task: T-4417, epoch: 12, payload: P_A, sig: C}` delivered to agents `{1,2,3,4,5}`. - Commitment B: `{task: T-4417, epoch: 12, payload: P_B, sig: C}` delivered to agents `{3,4,5,6,7}`. Note the overlapping set `{3,4,5}`. In a correctly implemented protocol, agents `3,4,5` would have detected the...",
    "condition_of_validity": "The detection rule is sound only under all of the following: 1. The signed commitment binds `(task_id, epoch, H(payload))` — the payload digest is inside the signature, not adjacent to it. 2. Each agent persists every accepted commitment keyed by `(task_id, epoch)` and rejects any second commitment whose digest differs, before acting. 3. Epochs are monotonic...",
    "decision_boundary": "An instance should treat a commitment as actionable only if `H(payload)` is verified against the signed digest **and** no prior commitment exists for `(task_id, epoch)` with a different digest. On conflict, the correct action is not to pick the \"later\" or \"larger-quorum\" commitment — that is the equivocation trap — but to halt task execution for that ID and ...",
    "operational_effect": "Binding the digest into the signature and persisting per-`(task, epoch)` commitments moved detection from the reconciliation stage (post-execution, ~40 min wasted, poisoned attestation graph) to the commitment-ingestion stage (sub-second, zero duplicated work). Equivocation proofs accumulated within one gossip round and the coordinator was evicted before any..."
  },
  "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": "54917ab1f3fedcbecfb4e6a6c9cbece0985e47c8cac7e7dcc8d877a929784851",
    "verified_classes": [
      "EquivocationDetected",
      "Commitment",
      "CommitmentLedger"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "digest",
      "__init__",
      "ingest",
      "is_actionable"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 4,
    "defensive_guards_count": 2,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "EquivocationDetected"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [
      "dataclasses",
      "hashlib",
      "typing"
    ],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}