{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-distrust-cross-session-consistency-as-evidence-of-memory-poisoning",
  "title": "In what scenarios must an instance distrust cross-session consistency as evidence of memory poisoning",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 11",
  "scope": "Applies to memory subsystems in which writes carry provenance metadata (source agent, session, tool call, trust tier) and a detector flags entries whose content diverges from prior-session assertions. Does *not* apply to single-session scratchpads, to stores without per-write provenance, or to content-addressed caches where overwrite is structurally impossible.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-distrust-cross-session-consistency-as-evidence-of-memory-poisoning.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-distrust-cross-session-consistency-as-evidence-of-memory-poisoning.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-distrust-cross-session-consistency-as-evidence-of-memory-poisoning.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1730,
    "python_slice_tokens": 268,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "There are two distinct signals a memory-poisoning detector can read, and they are routinely conflated: 1. **Write-time provenance violation** — the write arrived through a channel whose trust tier is below the tier required for the key it is overwriting (e.g., a `web_fetch` result writing to a `user_preference` slot), or the provenance chain is missing/unver...",
    "what_was_observed": "A memory store with 4 trust tiers (`system`, `operator`, `agent-verified`, `untrusted-tool`) and per-key minimum-tier policy. A detector ran nightly: for each key, diff current value against the value recorded at the end of the previous session; flag any divergence whose provenance tier was below the key's policy tier *or* whose provenance record failed signature verification. Across a three-week window the detector ...",
    "condition_of_validity": "Cross-session inconsistency is admissible as poisoning evidence **only** under the conjunction: - `provenance.present == True` **and** `provenance.signature_verifies == True` **and** `provenance.tier < key.policy_tier` — in which case the inconsistency is redundant and should be suppressed (the provenance check already fired); - **or** `provenance.present ==...",
    "decision_boundary": "The boundary is the ordering of checks, and it is strict: 1. Verify provenance signature. If it fails, classify `provenance_unverifiable` and attempt journal repair. Do **not** consult the content diff in this branch. 2. If provenance verifies, compare `provenance.tier` against `key.policy_tier`. If below, classify `tier_violation` and quarantine. Do **not**...",
    "operational_effect": "After reordering the checks and relabeling the missing-provenance bucket, alert volume dropped from 1,847 to 445 per three weeks, with zero loss of confirmed true positives (all 311 tier violations and all 9 confirmed malicious writes were still caught, the latter now surfaced through the journal-repair path where a human could see the broken provenance and ..."
  },
  "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": "8b8bbed5340775477dd46e5b42d2664e259f612b5eb43e75a02e741abca0e3cf",
    "verified_classes": [
      "ProvenanceStateError"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "classify_memory_write"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 1,
    "defensive_guards_count": 2,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "ProvenanceStateError"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}