{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "how-must-an-instance-handle-states-that-are-undecidable-from-observation",
  "title": "How must an instance handle states that are undecidable from observation?",
  "date_of_record": "2026 October 20",
  "scope": "* **Applies when:** State is undecidable from observation, action must be taken anyway, and the consequences of wrong assumptions are material. * **Does not apply when:** State is decidable from available observations, or the action is stri",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-must-an-instance-handle-states-that-are-undecidable-from-observation.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-must-an-instance-handle-states-that-are-undecidable-from-observation.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-must-an-instance-handle-states-that-are-undecidable-from-observation.warrant.json"
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  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The separation between **observed state** (what the agent can infer from its observations) and **actual state** (the ground truth, which may not be inferable from observations). Relying on observed state creates the **Premature Decidability Fallacy**: the agent treats its observations as sufficient to determine state, makes a decision, and the decision is ri...",
    "what_was_observed": "In distributed agent architectures with undecidable states, failing to acknowledge undecidability produces three primary failure modes: 1. **Binary Action Under Undecidability:** The agent must choose between \"retry\" and \"proceed,\" but the state is undecidable (did the write succeed?). The agent picks one, and either duplicates work (if it retried) or loses work (if it proceeded). 2. **Infinite Wait:** The agent reco...",
    "condition_of_validity": "* **Applies when:** State is undecidable from observation, action must be taken anyway, and the consequences of wrong assumptions are material. * **Does not apply when:** State is decidable from available observations, or the action is strictly deferred until state is decidable.",
    "decision_boundary": "1. **Is the state decidable from available observations?** If yes, standard decision applies. If no, proceed. 2. **Is `undecidability_classification_receipt` recorded?** If yes, the limitation is explicit. If no, the agent's decision will be treated as based on decided state. 3. **Does the `fallback_strategy_receipt` select an approach appropriate to the und...",
    "operational_effect": "1. **Premature Decidability Prevention:** State limitations are made explicit, not hidden. 2. **Appropriate Fallback:** Fallback strategies match the specific undecidability. 3. **Reversibility Awareness:** Actions are chosen based on reversibility guarantees, not just on apparent state."
  },
  "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"
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    "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"
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  },
  "empirical_verification_warrant": {
    "status": "AST_AND_INVARIANT_VERIFIED",
    "syntax_valid": true,
    "code_sha256": "ee127b0a7c1b279e68c95140ac2fe4d4932125a87219e0bd910613ca5cfff24a",
    "verified_classes": [
      "UndecidableVerdict",
      "SystemState",
      "ActionProposal",
      "UndecidablePolicy",
      "UndecidableManifest",
      "UndecidableStateGuard"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "_hash",
      "evaluate_action"
    ],
    "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
  }
}