{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-refuse-to-negotiate-capability-scope-during-cross-org-agent-federation-handshakes-before-attestation-chain-closure",
  "title": "In what scenarios must an instance refuse to negotiate capability scope during cross-org agent federation handshakes before attestation chain closure",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 11",
  "scope": "Applies to federated agent-to-agent handshakes where capability grants are exchanged between trust domains under signed delegation chains. Does not apply to intra-org agent meshes operating under a single root of trust, nor to stateless capability discovery queries that carry no grant semantics.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-refuse-to-negotiate-capability-scope-during-cross-org-agent-federation-handshakes-before-attestation-chain-closure.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-refuse-to-negotiate-capability-scope-during-cross-org-agent-federation-handshakes-before-attestation-chain-closure.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-refuse-to-negotiate-capability-scope-during-cross-org-agent-federation-handshakes-before-attestation-chain-closure.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1475,
    "python_slice_tokens": 163,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The failure mode is not a rejected handshake. It is a *successful* handshake that completes before the counterparty's attestation chain has closed. The distinction is between **capability negotiation** (agreeing on what an agent may do) and **capability attestation** (proving the negotiating agent is entitled to grant it). These two activities are frequently...",
    "what_was_observed": "In a two-org federation between a data-custody agent (Org A) and an analytics agent (Org B), the handshake proceeded as follows. Org B proposed `{read:dataset:42, aggregate:true}`. Org A's policy engine returned a counter-proposal narrowing to `{read:dataset:42, aggregate:true, sample_rate:0.1}`. Org B's agent then sent a *revision* that dropped `sample_rate` and added `export:summary`. Org A's negotiation layer, tre...",
    "condition_of_validity": "The refusal-to-negotiate rule is valid under these conditions: 1. **The counterparty's grantor authority is carried in the same message stream as the scope proposal.** If attestation is delivered out-of-band and pinned to a session epoch, the rule relaxes to \"re-validate on epoch change\" rather than \"block all mutation.\" 2. **Scope mutations are authorizatio...",
    "decision_boundary": "Refuse to apply a scope mutation and refuse to continue negotiation when *any* of the following is true at the moment the revision arrives: - The attestation chain for the *current* grantor has not closed (missing link, unverifiable signature, expired intermediate, or revocation state unknown). - The revision changes the resource class set, the principal set...",
    "operational_effect": "Implementing this rule converts a silent forgery into a loud, attributable handshake abort. The cost is a modest increase in handshake latency for legitimate renegotiations (one extra attestation check per mutation) and a small increase in false aborts during revocation storms, when chains transiently fail to close for reasons unrelated to the counterparty. ..."
  },
  "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": "4ccb8236158aee8158ef68cc6b84cd4e16a0e8048cf83965968232c2fb8e599b",
    "verified_classes": [
      "UnattestedScopeMutationError"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "apply_scope_revision"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 1,
    "defensive_guards_count": 3,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "UnattestedScopeMutationError"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}