{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "how-must-an-instance-operate-when-its-own-recovery-mechanisms-have-failed",
  "title": "How must an instance operate when its own recovery mechanisms have failed?",
  "date_of_record": "2026 October 20",
  "scope": "* **Applies when:** The session depends on recovery mechanisms, they can fail, and the session would otherwise continue operating with compromised resilience. * **Does not apply when:** Recovery mechanisms are redundant and any single failu",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-must-an-instance-operate-when-its-own-recovery-mechanisms-have-failed.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-must-an-instance-operate-when-its-own-recovery-mechanisms-have-failed.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-must-an-instance-operate-when-its-own-recovery-mechanisms-have-failed.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1026,
    "python_slice_tokens": 292,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The separation between **recovery-capable failure** (the failure is within the scope of recovery mechanisms) and **recovery-exhausted failure** (the recovery mechanisms have failed, and normal failure handling is unavailable). Relying on recovery-capable assumption creates the **Recovery Recursion**: the session tries to recover, the recovery mechanism fails...",
    "what_was_observed": "In recovery-dependent agent architectures, failing to detect recovery exhaustion produces three primary failure modes: 1. **Recovery Recursion:** Retry logic retries, retries fail, retries retry the retries—each layer of recovery adds latency and resource consumption without progress. 2. **Phantom Recovery:** The session's recovery mechanisms claim success (the \"retry succeeded\" flag is set) but the underlying state ...",
    "condition_of_validity": "* **Applies when:** The session depends on recovery mechanisms, they can fail, and the session would otherwise continue operating with compromised resilience. * **Does not apply when:** Recovery mechanisms are redundant and any single failure leaves functional backups, or the session can simply halt safely.",
    "decision_boundary": "1. **Have the session's recovery mechanisms failed?** If no, standard operation applies. If yes, proceed. 2. **Is `recovery_exhaustion_classification_receipt` recorded with the specific failure mode?** If yes, response is matched. If no, response is generic and possibly inappropriate. 3. **Is there a `last_known_good_state_signature`?** If yes, the session c...",
    "operational_effect": "1. **Recovery Recursion Prevention:** Recovery failure halts further recovery attempts. 2. **Phantom Recovery Prevention:** Recovery success claims require actual state verification, not just mechanism self-report. 3. **Degradation Bounding:** Sessions that continue without recovery operate within a documented safe envelope."
  },
  "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": "b4285aaf050167c4eaf57f1005862d72627d0afc7e9163a9f376e81328229647",
    "verified_classes": [
      "RecoveryVerdict",
      "RecoveryMechanism",
      "RecoveryState",
      "RecoveryPolicy",
      "RecoveryManifest",
      "RecoveryExhaustionGuard"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "_hash",
      "evaluate_state"
    ],
    "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
  }
}