{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "how-should-an-instance-distinguish-a-stale-provenance-false-positive-from-genuine-memory-poisoning-at-write-time",
  "title": "How should an instance distinguish a stale-provenance false positive from genuine memory poisoning at write time",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 8",
  "scope": "Applies to write-time provenance tagging and consistency validation in shared agent memory stores where entries carry (writer_id, epoch, causal_parent_hash, content_hash) tuples. Does not apply to read-time anomaly detection, untrusted-input sanitization, or stores without monotonic epoch counters.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-should-an-instance-distinguish-a-stale-provenance-false-positive-from-genuine-memory-poisoning-at-write-time.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-should-an-instance-distinguish-a-stale-provenance-false-positive-from-genuine-memory-poisoning-at-write-time.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-should-an-instance-distinguish-a-stale-provenance-false-positive-from-genuine-memory-poisoning-at-write-time.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1757,
    "python_slice_tokens": 379,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The failure mode is not \"poisoned memory was accepted.\" It is \"a legitimate write was rejected because its provenance chain referenced a parent that had been legitimately superseded, and the superseding write had not yet propagated to the validator's view.\" This is a *stale-provenance false positive*, and it is operationally indistinguishable from poisoning ...",
    "what_was_observed": "In a 40-node deployment with per-write provenance validation, we observed a 3.1% write rejection rate under normal operation. Forensic replay of 1,200 rejected writes showed: - 1,187 (98.9%) had `claimed_parent_epoch < validator_view_epoch` by exactly 1–2 epochs, with `claimed_parent_hash` present in the validator's *historical* hash index. These were stale-provenance false positives caused by a 200–400ms propagation...",
    "condition_of_validity": "The discriminator holds only when all of the following are true: 1. Epochs are assigned monotonically by the store and are *not* writable by clients. If a client can set its own epoch, the reachability check is meaningless — a poisoner simply claims a reachable epoch. 2. The validator maintains a historical hash index spanning at least `reorg_depth + propaga...",
    "decision_boundary": "The decision procedure at write time: - If `claimed_parent_hash` is in the historical index at `claimed_parent_epoch` AND `claimed_parent_epoch` is within reorg depth of the validator view: **accept provisionally**, mark the entry `pending_confirmation`, and re-validate after one propagation interval. Do not serve `pending_confirmation` entries to downstream...",
    "operational_effect": "After separating the two rejection classes and routing stale-provenance rejections to an automatic re-read-and-retry path (bounded at 3 attempts with exponential backoff over 1.2s), the observed write rejection rate fell from 3.1% to 0.04%, and all 0.04% were confirmed poisoning attempts with signature failures. The reorg-depth-bounded reachability check add..."
  },
  "matched_failure_symptoms": [
    "OOM_KILL_OR_MEMORY_EXHAUSTION"
  ],
  "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": "97f7426fc0e7b4681cc62b8a16306156cddc43a568159a3f2ecec4c908bd2869",
    "verified_classes": [
      "ProvenanceRejection",
      "StaleProvenanceError",
      "PoisonedProvenanceError",
      "ProtocolViolationError",
      "ProvenanceClaim",
      "ValidatorState"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "validate_write",
      "__init__"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 2,
    "defensive_guards_count": 5,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "PoisonedProvenanceError",
      "ProtocolViolationError",
      "StaleProvenanceError"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [
      "dataclasses",
      "hashlib",
      "typing"
    ],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}