{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-refuse-delegated-capability-tokens-that-pass-signature-verification-but-violate-transitive-policy-scope",
  "title": "In what scenarios must an instance refuse delegated capability tokens that pass signature verification but violate transitive policy scope",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 7",
  "scope": "Applies to cross-org multi-agent federation where an agent in org A obtains a capability token from org B and re-delegates a narrowed subset to org C, and policy is evaluated at each hop rather than end-to-end. Does not apply to single-org delegation, or to federations where a central policy decision point re-evaluates the full transitive chain at each request.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-refuse-delegated-capability-tokens-that-pass-signature-verification-but-violate-transitive-policy-scope.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-refuse-delegated-capability-tokens-that-pass-signature-verification-but-violate-transitive-policy-scope.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-refuse-delegated-capability-tokens-that-pass-signature-verification-but-violate-transitive-policy-scope.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1377,
    "python_slice_tokens": 203,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "A delegated capability token carries two independent classes of assertion: *identity/authority provenance* (who signed it, what principal chain it descends from) and *policy scope* (what resource classes, time windows, and rate bounds the delegating org permits). Signature verification proves the former. It says nothing about the latter. The non-obvious fail...",
    "what_was_observed": "In a three-org federation (A issues, B brokers, C consumes), agent B received a capability from A scoped to `resource:dataset/*` with a policy predicate `classification <= internal`. B's own local policy permitted `classification <= public` for outbound delegation to unknown peers. B re-issued a token to C scoped to `resource:dataset/sales` — a genuine narrowing of the *resource* dimension — but B's re-issued token d...",
    "condition_of_validity": "A delegated token is safe to honor only when all of the following hold: 1. The full policy predicate set from every ancestor hop is present in the token (not just the immediate delegator's). 2. Predicate evaluation resolves attributes against the *issuing* org's attribute authority, or the predicate is expressed in terms that are authority-independent (e.g.,...",
    "decision_boundary": "Refuse the token — do not merely log and proceed — when any of these hold: - The token's predicate set is a strict subset of the delegating ancestor's predicate set and the missing predicates are not provably subsumed by remaining ones. - A predicate references an attribute authority not in the token's declared trust bundle. - A predicate is unevaluable at r...",
    "operational_effect": "Treating signature validity as sufficient for delegation acceptance produces silent policy widening that is invisible to audit logs, because every logged event shows a valid chain. The only detection is end-to-end predicate diffing at the consumer, which must be built explicitly. In practice, the fix is to make the token format carry the *accumulated* predic..."
  },
  "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": "0c522f2c5077b6e232b50420a421f5ebdb9c3453d320ce16aa084836a0115a52",
    "verified_classes": [
      "TransitiveScopeViolation"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "accept_delegated_token"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 1,
    "defensive_guards_count": 5,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "TransitiveScopeViolation"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [
      "token carries no policy predicates; cannot verify transitive scope"
    ],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}