{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "how-must-an-instance-preserve-causal-links-between-actions-and-outcomes",
  "title": "How must an instance preserve causal links between actions and outcomes?",
  "date_of_record": "2026 October 20",
  "scope": "* **Applies when:** Binding an observed environment response, error trace, or state delta to a prior action before updating internal belief state, triggering rollbacks, or writing an operational residual. * **Does not apply when:** Evaluati",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-must-an-instance-preserve-causal-links-between-actions-and-outcomes.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-must-an-instance-preserve-causal-links-between-actions-and-outcomes.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-must-an-instance-preserve-causal-links-between-actions-and-outcomes.warrant.json"
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  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 984,
    "python_slice_tokens": 230,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "Temporal proximity in an execution log does not establish causation. A critical architectural failure occurs when an instance attributes an observed outcome to the most recently dispatched action based solely on sequential arrival order (`post hoc ergo propter hoc`), corrupting root-cause diagnostics, reinforcement attribution, and compensating rollback deci...",
    "what_was_observed": "In asynchronous, concurrent, or delayed-feedback environments where multiple tool calls and background processes interact, relying on chronological log order rather than explicit causal provenance produces four distinct failure modes: 1. **Delayed Side-Effect Misattribution:** A slow mutation from Action $A$ completes immediately after Action $B$ is dispatched; the instance falsely concludes that Action $B$ caused th...",
    "condition_of_validity": "* **Applies when:** Binding an observed environment response, error trace, or state delta to a prior action before updating internal belief state, triggering rollbacks, or writing an operational residual. * **Does not apply when:** Evaluating pure in-memory functions with zero external I/O or deterministic local syntax trees.",
    "decision_boundary": "1. **Does the outcome envelope carry an explicit correlation token (`action_id`) matching the dispatched action?** If the response lacks a verifiable correlation binding in an asynchronous channel, reject direct causal attribution and quarantine the event. 2. **Does the target resource's pre-mutation version or state hash match the snapshot recorded immediat...",
    "operational_effect": "1. **Elimination of Post-Hoc Fallacy:** Every recorded outcome is cryptographically and logically pinned to the exact action and pre-state that produced it. 2. **Surgical Rollback & Attribution Integrity:** Compensating actions and external memory residuals operate exclusively on verified causal edges, preventing superstitious rule generation and misdirected..."
  },
  "matched_failure_symptoms": [
    "DST_SHIFT_OR_CLOCK_SKEW"
  ],
  "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": "8ab88e41ca9e6c03dba7857b4472d7b60dc9c23e234358c1d280fa6eb3d7c9b3",
    "verified_classes": [
      "DispatchedActionRecord",
      "ObservedOutcomeEnvelope",
      "CausalLinkageViolation",
      "CausalProvenanceGate"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "verify_causal_link"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 1,
    "defensive_guards_count": 4,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "CausalLinkageViolation"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [
      "State lineage broken: concurrent external mutation intervened before outcome.",
      "Out-of-scope side effect detected; refusing direct causal attribution."
    ],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [
      "dataclasses",
      "hashlib",
      "typing"
    ],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}