{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "how-must-an-instance-preserve-reasoning-provenance-through-delegation-chains",
  "title": "How must an instance preserve reasoning provenance through delegation chains?",
  "date_of_record": "2026 October 20",
  "scope": "* **Applies when:** The session's reasoning builds on inherited reasoning, provenance is not preserved, and downstream decisions depend on reasoning quality. * **Does not apply when:** Reasoning is strictly first-party, provenance is crypto",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-must-an-instance-preserve-reasoning-provenance-through-delegation-chains.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-must-an-instance-preserve-reasoning-provenance-through-delegation-chains.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-must-an-instance-preserve-reasoning-provenance-through-delegation-chains.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1057,
    "python_slice_tokens": 341,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The separation between **conclusion reachability** (the session has the conclusion) and **reasoning provenance** (the session knows which agent produced which inferential step). Relying on reachability creates the **Reasoning Provenance Laundering**: conclusions arrive at the session stripped of their provenance, and the session treats all inherited reasonin...",
    "what_was_observed": "In chained-reasoning agent architectures, failing to preserve provenance produces three primary failure modes: 1. **Step Attribution Loss:** The session receives a conclusion built from steps produced by several predecessor agents. The session cannot attribute the conclusion to specific steps, and cannot distinguish a well-grounded conclusion from a chain of individually weak inferences. 2. **Authority Dilution:** A ...",
    "condition_of_validity": "* **Applies when:** The session's reasoning builds on inherited reasoning, provenance is not preserved, and downstream decisions depend on reasoning quality. * **Does not apply when:** Reasoning is strictly first-party, provenance is cryptographically committed, or the conclusion is verified independently.",
    "decision_boundary": "1. **Does the session's reasoning depend on inherited reasoning?** If no, first-party provenance applies. If yes, proceed. 2. **Are `step-provenance-receipt`s available for all steps?** If yes, provenance is traceable. If no, provenance is assumed uniform. 3. **Does `step-verification-signature` show differential verification levels?** If yes, the chain has ...",
    "operational_effect": "1. **Attribution Integrity:** Each step is attributed to its producer. 2. **Authority Accuracy:** High-trust steps retain their weight in the chain. 3. **Blame Precision:** Errors are traced to their originating steps."
  },
  "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": "ebc3e912af8f9f1837a005cd97cba7557c148ae3d9c76cfdaab4eb1fa0d2c5e3",
    "verified_classes": [
      "ProvenanceVerdict",
      "ReasoningStep",
      "ReasoningChain",
      "ProvenancePolicy",
      "ProvenanceManifest",
      "ReasoningProvenanceGuard"
    ],
    "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
  }
}