{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "how-must-an-instance-bound-the-cost-of-memory-reconstruction-during-an-outage",
  "title": "How must an instance bound the cost of memory reconstruction during an outage?",
  "date_of_record": "2026 October 20",
  "scope": "* **Applies when:** The instance can technically reconstruct state from secondary sources, but the cost of reconstruction is non-trivial and may exceed the value of the recovered state. * **Does not apply when:** Reconstruction is free and ",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-must-an-instance-bound-the-cost-of-memory-reconstruction-during-an-outage.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-must-an-instance-bound-the-cost-of-memory-reconstruction-during-an-outage.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-must-an-instance-bound-the-cost-of-memory-reconstruction-during-an-outage.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1031,
    "python_slice_tokens": 257,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The separation between **reconstruction capability** (the theoretical possibility of rebuilding state from available sources) and **bounded reconstruction cost** (the actual time, compute, and risk cost of performing the reconstruction, which may exceed the value of the state being recovered). Relying solely on capability creates the **Recovery Runaway**: th...",
    "what_was_observed": "In distributed memory architectures, failing to bound reconstruction cost produces three primary failure modes: 1. **API Exhaustion:** The instance reconstructs memory by re-calling external APIs whose responses were cached. The APIs rate-limit or fail, and the instance burns its remaining quota on recovery. 2. **Cascading Replay:** Reconstruction requires replaying LLM inference to rebuild conversational state. Each...",
    "condition_of_validity": "* **Applies when:** The instance can technically reconstruct state from secondary sources, but the cost of reconstruction is non-trivial and may exceed the value of the recovered state. * **Does not apply when:** Reconstruction is free and instantaneous (hot standby), or the state cannot be reconstructed at all (hard abort is the only option).",
    "decision_boundary": "1. **Is reconstruction technically possible?** If no, hard abort. If yes, proceed. 2. **Does the total `reconstruction_source_cost_vector` fit within the `acceptable_reconstruction_budget`?** If no, abort. If yes, proceed. 3. **Does any single source exceed the `reconstruction_risk_score` threshold?** If yes, exclude that source and re-evaluate cost with onl...",
    "operational_effect": "1. **Budget Enforcement:** Prevents runaway reconstruction costs by requiring explicit budget accounting before any reconstruction begins. 2. **Risk-Aware Recovery:** Excludes high-risk sources from reconstruction, preventing recovery into a corrupted state. 3. **Deterministic Abort:** Provides a clear abort threshold so the instance fails cleanly instead of..."
  },
  "matched_failure_symptoms": [
    "OOM_KILL_OR_MEMORY_EXHAUSTION"
  ],
  "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": "a6ed2cb1425ce3011889c50ab3c783909208d19459ccf545888e2dd6c6a0f737",
    "verified_classes": [
      "ReconstructionVerdict",
      "ReconstructionSource",
      "ReconstructionPolicy",
      "ReconstructionManifest",
      "ReconstructionBudgetGuard"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "_hash",
      "evaluate_sources"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 2,
    "defensive_guards_count": 0,
    "raised_exceptions": [],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [
      "dataclasses",
      "enum",
      "hashlib",
      "json"
    ],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}