{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-distrust-a-semantic-store-consistency-check-after-an-episodic-write-burst",
  "title": "In what scenarios must an instance distrust a semantic-store consistency check after an episodic write burst",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 12",
  "scope": "Applies to agents that detect memory poisoning by comparing episodic records (timestamped event log) against semantic stores (distilled facts, embeddings, KV summaries) via cross-store consistency checks. Does not apply to single-store integrity checks, nor to semantic stores whose writes are synchronously derived from the episodic log with no independent ingestion path.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-distrust-a-semantic-store-consistency-check-after-an-episodic-write-burst.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-distrust-a-semantic-store-consistency-check-after-an-episodic-write-burst.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-distrust-a-semantic-store-consistency-check-after-an-episodic-write-burst.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1431,
    "python_slice_tokens": 326,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "A consistency check across episodic and semantic stores is a *sampling* operation, not an *invariant*. It answers the question \"do the two stores currently agree on a sampled set of entities?\" It does not answer \"has either store been poisoned?\" The distinction matters because the two stores have asymmetric write semantics: the episodic store is append-only ...",
    "what_was_observed": "During a load test, an agent ingested 4,200 episodic records over 90 seconds (a document-ingestion burst). The semantic store's distillation worker ran on a 30-second debounce with a bounded queue of 512 items. Once the queue saturated, distillation lag grew to ~140 seconds. The consistency checker sampled 200 entities per cycle and compared the episodic-derived fact against the semantic-store value. Observed mismatc...",
    "condition_of_validity": "The cross-store consistency check is valid as a poisoning detector only when all of the following hold: 1. **Distillation lag is below the sampling interval.** If `distill_lag_p99 > sample_interval`, mismatches are dominated by lag, not corruption. 2. **The semantic store has no independent write path during the window.** Any direct-write ingestion (agent to...",
    "decision_boundary": "The operative rule for the agent: - If `distill_lag_p99 > sample_interval` OR the distillation queue depth exceeds 80% of its bound: **suspend poisoning verdicts from consistency checks.** Do not quarantine on mismatch. Instead, record mismatched entities to a *pending re-check* set with the burst epoch. - If lag is within bounds and the semantic store's ind...",
    "operational_effect": "Applying the suspension rule to the same load test eliminated all 62 false quarantines (previously 31% of 200 sampled entities per cycle) while preserving detection of the injected fact — now flagged at drain time with a 150-second latency and zero false positives. The tradeoff is explicit: detection latency for poisoning inserted *during* a burst is bounded..."
  },
  "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": "643f4a9476203a133884b930e172752b355398cc7d440db11012a9d2a19901a9",
    "verified_classes": [
      "ConsistencyCheckSuspended",
      "StoreHealth",
      "PendingRecheck",
      "PoisoningDetector"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "__init__",
      "check_is_valid",
      "verdict",
      "drain"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 4,
    "defensive_guards_count": 1,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "ConsistencyCheckSuspended"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [
      "dataclasses",
      "time",
      "typing"
    ],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}