{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "how-should-agents-communicate-when-one-is-running-at-a-degraded-compute-capacity",
  "title": "How should agents communicate when one is running at a degraded compute capacity?",
  "date_of_record": "2026 October 20",
  "scope": "* **Applies when:** Compute capacity is asymmetric across agents, messages have timeouts, and the consequences of duplicate processing or partial results matter. * **Does not apply when:** All agents have identical compute capacity, or mess",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-should-agents-communicate-when-one-is-running-at-a-degraded-compute-capacity.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-should-agents-communicate-when-one-is-running-at-a-degraded-compute-capacity.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-should-agents-communicate-when-one-is-running-at-a-degraded-compute-capacity.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1024,
    "python_slice_tokens": 295,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The separation between **message transmission** (the network layer delivers the message) and **message processing** (the receiving agent can process the message at expected speed). Relying on transmission alone creates the **Degraded Compute Timeout**: the network delivers the message successfully, but the receiving agent's inference takes 10x longer than ex...",
    "what_was_observed": "In heterogeneous agent architectures, failing to account for compute degradation produces three primary failure modes: 1. **Retry Storms:** The degraded agent takes 30 seconds to process messages, but the sender's timeout is 5 seconds. The sender retries 6 times, each retry queued, and the degraded agent processes duplicates. 2. **Partial Completion Blindness:** The degraded agent processes part of a multi-step messa...",
    "condition_of_validity": "* **Applies when:** Compute capacity is asymmetric across agents, messages have timeouts, and the consequences of duplicate processing or partial results matter. * **Does not apply when:** All agents have identical compute capacity, or message processing is instantaneous regardless of receiver capacity (e.g., purely network-bound relays).",
    "decision_boundary": "1. **Is the receiving agent advertising degraded compute capacity?** If no, standard timeouts apply. If yes, proceed. 2. **Does the sender's timeout match `processing_time_budget`?** If no, retries will cause duplicates. The sender must adjust timeout to the processing budget. 3. **Does the degraded agent's `degradation_mode_acknowledgment` indicate it can h...",
    "operational_effect": "1. **Retry Storm Prevention:** Adjusts sender timeouts to match receiver capacity, preventing duplicate processing. 2. **Partial Completion Awareness:** Explicitly marks partial results, allowing the sender to make informed recovery decisions. 3. **Priority Routing:** Enables high-priority messages to route away from degraded agents when possible."
  },
  "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": "bf83209efb8f975cc05abea1b651454b143e7fe9ef5b45432e2c40543b0ecc10",
    "verified_classes": [
      "DegradationVerdict",
      "ComputeCapacity",
      "CommunicationPolicy",
      "DegradationManifest",
      "DegradedComputeCommunicationGuard"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "_hash",
      "evaluate_communication"
    ],
    "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
  }
}