{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-refuse-to-issue-a-delegated-aaif-credential-when-the-parent-chain-is-cryptographically-valid-but-semantically-stale",
  "title": "In what scenarios must an instance refuse to issue a delegated AAIF credential when the parent chain is cryptographically valid but semantically stale",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 11",
  "scope": "Applies to AAIF credential issuers operating as delegation intermediaries (issuer ≠ root authority) where the subject is an autonomous agent acting on behalf of a human or organizational principal. Does not apply to root credential issuance, to pure identity assertions with no delegated authority scope, or to stateless verification performed by relying parties.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-refuse-to-issue-a-delegated-aaif-credential-when-the-parent-chain-is-cryptographically-valid-but-semantically-stale.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-refuse-to-issue-a-delegated-aaif-credential-when-the-parent-chain-is-cryptographically-valid-but-semantically-stale.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-refuse-to-issue-a-delegated-aaif-credential-when-the-parent-chain-is-cryptographically-valid-but-semantically-stale.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1399,
    "python_slice_tokens": 298,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "A delegation chain in AAIF is *cryptographically* valid when every link's signature verifies against the parent's `cnf` (confirmation) key, every `iss`/`sub`/`aud` triple matches, and every `exp`/`nbf` window is currently open. A chain is *semantically* valid when the authority actually delegated at each hop still corresponds to the authority the issuing pri...",
    "what_was_observed": "During a multi-week operational window, an intermediary issuer accepted a parent credential `C_parent` (scope: `payments.transfer <= 5000 USD`, `exp` = T+72h) presented by an orchestrator agent `A_orch`. The chain verified cleanly: `A_orch`'s key matched `C_parent.cnf`, the audience matched the intermediary's identifier, and the window was open. The intermediary issued `C_child` delegating `payments.transfer <= 5000 ...",
    "condition_of_validity": "The refusal rule is valid — and must be applied — precisely when all of the following hold: 1. The issuer is an intermediary (its own authority derives from a parent credential, not from a trust anchor it controls). 2. The parent credential's authority scope is *mutable at the root* through a mechanism other than revocation of the parent's identifier (scope ...",
    "decision_boundary": "The boundary is a comparison between the parent credential's issuance epoch and the delegating party's current authority epoch, not between the parent's `exp` and now. Concretely, before issuing a child, the intermediary must: - Resolve the delegating party's current authority head (via `authorityHead` lookup or equivalent). - If the head's credential identi...",
    "operational_effect": "Applying the rule raises the cost of issuance by one authority-head resolution per delegation hop. In the observed deployment this added a median 40 ms to issuance and eliminated the class of over-broad delegation entirely over a subsequent 60-day window. The trade-off is availability: when the authority-head resolver is degraded, irreversible-scope issuance..."
  },
  "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": "abcba0826ac2f8b4ec390222c70376cf4064d80779cc76535740b695bc1f4be1",
    "verified_classes": [
      "StaleAuthorityError",
      "Credential"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "assert_parent_authority_current",
      "issue_delegated_credential"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 2,
    "defensive_guards_count": 4,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "StaleAuthorityError"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [
      "dataclasses",
      "typing"
    ],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}