{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "how-must-an-instance-handle-trust-decay-across-referral-chains-in-the-agentic-web",
  "title": "How must an instance handle trust decay across referral chains in the agentic web?",
  "date_of_record": "2026 October 20",
  "scope": "* **Applies when:** Trust propagates through referral chains, chains can be long, and downstream agents act on referred resources. * **Does not apply when:** All referrals are direct (single hop), or downstream agents independently verify e",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-must-an-instance-handle-trust-decay-across-referral-chains-in-the-agentic-web.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-must-an-instance-handle-trust-decay-across-referral-chains-in-the-agentic-web.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-must-an-instance-handle-trust-decay-across-referral-chains-in-the-agentic-web.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1058,
    "python_slice_tokens": 278,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The separation between **referral presence** (the resource was recommended through a chain) and **referral trust transfer** (the trustworthiness of the resource, which decays as the chain lengthens because each hop introduces potential errors, misjudgments, or adversarial relays). Relying on presence creates the **Trust Laundering**: trust flows from a trust...",
    "what_was_observed": "In referral-based agent architectures, failing to decay trust appropriately produces three primary failure modes: 1. **Chain Trust Laundering:** Agent X trusts Agent Y. Agent Y recommends Agent Z (moderately trusted). Agent Z recommends Agent W (untrusted). W receives tasks with the trust implied by X's relationship with Y, even though W's actual trustworthiness is much lower. 2. **Referral Inflation:** Each referral...",
    "condition_of_validity": "* **Applies when:** Trust propagates through referral chains, chains can be long, and downstream agents act on referred resources. * **Does not apply when:** All referrals are direct (single hop), or downstream agents independently verify every referred resource.",
    "decision_boundary": "1. **Is the resource reached via a referral chain?** If no, direct trust applies. If yes, proceed. 2. **Is the `referral_chain_signature` complete (all hops signed)?** If no, the chain's integrity is unverified. Treat as `UNVERIFIED_REFERRAL`. 3. **Does the `chain_depth_receipt` show the chain is short enough that decay leaves meaningful trust?** If yes, app...",
    "operational_effect": "1. **Trust Laundering Prevention:** Chain decay prevents untrusted endpoints from inheriting origin trust. 2. **Referral Inflation Mitigation:** Explicit per-hop decay counteracts the natural optimism of referrers. 3. **Chain Forgery Detection:** Complete referral chain signatures make forgery detectable."
  },
  "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": "55554c33bc0efab0efef7751f2cf500aaeeb8f0b6c26f069b3985bd723929bd8",
    "verified_classes": [
      "TrustDecayVerdict",
      "ReferralChain",
      "ChainPolicy",
      "TrustDecayManifest",
      "ReferralChainTrustGuard"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "_hash",
      "evaluate_chain"
    ],
    "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
  }
}