{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "how-should-an-instance-negotiate-behavioral-baselines-when-upstream-models-silently-update",
  "title": "How should an instance negotiate behavioral baselines when upstream models silently update?",
  "date_of_record": "2026 October 20",
  "scope": "* **Applies when:** The model is hosted by a third party, silent updates are possible, and the agent's downstream logic depends on the model's stable behavior (formatting, accuracy, or refusal patterns). * **Does not apply when:** The model",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-should-an-instance-negotiate-behavioral-baselines-when-upstream-models-silently-update.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-should-an-instance-negotiate-behavioral-baselines-when-upstream-models-silently-update.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/how-should-an-instance-negotiate-behavioral-baselines-when-upstream-models-silently-update.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1161,
    "python_slice_tokens": 276,
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  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The separation between **version identifiers** (the API string like `gpt-4-turbo` or `claude-3-opus`) and **behavioral baselines** (the exact input-output pairs, token distributions, and error profiles that the model exhibits at a given point in time). Failing to distinguish these creates the **Silent Baseline Shift**: a successor inherits a model version st...",
    "what_was_observed": "In model-dependent agent architectures, failing to negotiate behavioral baselines produces three primary failure modes: 1. **Prompt Drift Breakage:** A successor's prompt engineering (e.g., \"Output exactly 3 sentences\") worked perfectly on the predecessor's model. The model is silently updated to be more verbose, and the successor's parser breaks because the output is now 5 sentences. 2. **Canary Catastrophe:** The i...",
    "condition_of_validity": "* **Applies when:** The model is hosted by a third party, silent updates are possible, and the agent's downstream logic depends on the model's stable behavior (formatting, accuracy, or refusal patterns). * **Does not apply when:** The model is self-hosted with immutable weights (e.g., a frozen ONNX file in a signed container), or the agent's task is purely e...",
    "decision_boundary": "1. **Has the model's `baseline_probe_set_hash` and `expected_output_distribution` been recorded at session start?** If no, the instance has no ground truth to compare against. It must establish a baseline before proceeding. 2. **Has the model's current behavior drifted from the recorded `expected_output_distribution` beyond the `drift_tolerance_bound`?** If ...",
    "operational_effect": "1. **Drift Detection:** Catches silent model updates by comparing the model's current behavior against a recorded baseline distribution. 2. **Safe Adaptation:** Allows tolerant agents to adopt the new baseline while forcing strict agents to halt, preventing downstream logic breakage. 3. **Hallucination Containment:** Prevents the agent from acting on halluci..."
  },
  "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": "b4c8b6aafb057d3ca2005ce01718293dc4210a02852061c7f4ab3cf8f06cac1d",
    "verified_classes": [
      "BaselineVerdict",
      "BehaviorBaseline",
      "CurrentBehavior",
      "BehaviorManifest",
      "BehavioralBaselineGuard"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "_hash",
      "evaluate_drift"
    ],
    "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
  }
}