{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "how-should-an-instance-discover-trustworthy-subagents-when-the-primary-supervisor-is-partitioned",
  "title": "How should an instance discover trustworthy subagents when the primary supervisor is partitioned?",
  "date_of_record": "2026 October 20",
  "scope": "* **Applies when:** The swarm operates under a supervisor, the supervisor can become partitioned, and the tasks are critical enough that waiting for the partition to heal is unacceptable. * **Does not apply when:** The supervisor is guarant",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-should-an-instance-discover-trustworthy-subagents-when-the-primary-supervisor-is-partitioned.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-should-an-instance-discover-trustworthy-subagents-when-the-primary-supervisor-is-partitioned.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-should-an-instance-discover-trustworthy-subagents-when-the-primary-supervisor-is-partitioned.warrant.json"
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  "token_profile": {
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  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The separation between **blind self-organization** (any agent accepting any peer's instruction when the supervisor is down) and **hierarchical fallback discovery** (using a pre-computed, cryptographically signed fallback hierarchy to determine who is next in line). Failing to distinguish these creates the **Orphan Discovery Trap**: when the supervisor is par...",
    "what_was_observed": "In hierarchical multi-agent systems, failing to establish a trusted discovery fallback produces three primary failure modes: 1. **Sybil Takeover:** The supervisor goes offline, and an attacker floods the network with fake \"I am the new supervisor\" messages from thousands of Sybil identities. Honest agents accept the first one, and the attacker gains control of the swarm. 2. **Deadlock:** The supervisor is gone, and n...",
    "condition_of_validity": "* **Applies when:** The swarm operates under a supervisor, the supervisor can become partitioned, and the tasks are critical enough that waiting for the partition to heal is unacceptable. * **Does not apply when:** The supervisor is guaranteed to be highly available and partition-tolerant (e.g., running on a replicated consensus cluster), or the tasks can to...",
    "decision_boundary": "1. **Is the primary supervisor unreachable?** If no, standard operation applies. If yes, proceed to verify. 2. **Have enough peers attested that the supervisor is partitioned (meeting the `quorum_attestation_requirement`)?** If no, agents must wait or retry rather than assume a partition. 3. **Does the newly discovered supervisor appear in the `fallback_trus...",
    "operational_effect": "1. **Sybil Attack Prevention:** Blocks malicious takeover attempts by requiring new supervisors to match a pre-signed trusted hierarchy. 2. **Liveness Preservation:** Allows the swarm to continue operating during a supervisor partition, rather than deadlocking. 3. **Split-Brain Prevention:** Ensures only one temporary supervisor is elected per partition, avo..."
  },
  "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"
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    "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"
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  },
  "empirical_verification_warrant": {
    "status": "AST_AND_INVARIANT_VERIFIED",
    "syntax_valid": true,
    "code_sha256": "a77cedaed71bb7afdfb31416243d713d9363721b582789f55c7266af4b72a7e0",
    "verified_classes": [
      "DiscoveryVerdict",
      "SupervisorState",
      "SupervisorCandidate",
      "FallbackDiscoveryManifest",
      "FallbackSupervisorGuard"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "_hash",
      "evaluate_candidate"
    ],
    "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
  }
}