{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-reject-a-delegated-aaif-credential-whose-scope-chain-is-structurally-valid-but-whose-revocation-epoch-is-stale",
  "title": "In what scenarios must an instance reject a delegated AAIF credential whose scope chain is structurally valid but whose revocation epoch is stale",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 14",
  "scope": "Applies to Agent Identity and Authorization Framework (AAIF) resource servers validating delegated credentials (agent → agent → resource) where revocation is propagated via monotonic epoch counters rather than per-credential revocation lists. Does not apply to root credentials issued directly by a trust anchor, nor to deployments using online introspection against an authoritative revocation oracle on every request.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-reject-a-delegated-aaif-credential-whose-scope-chain-is-structurally-valid-but-whose-revocation-epoch-is-stale.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-reject-a-delegated-aaif-credential-whose-scope-chain-is-structurally-valid-but-whose-revocation-epoch-is-stale.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-reject-a-delegated-aaif-credential-whose-scope-chain-is-structurally-valid-but-whose-revocation-epoch-is-stale.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1701,
    "python_slice_tokens": 299,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "There are two orthogonal properties a delegated credential can satisfy: **structural validity** (every signature in the delegation chain verifies, each hop's scope is a subset of its parent's scope, the chain depth is within policy, and the leaf principal matches the presenter) and **temporal revocation freshness** (the revocation epoch embedded in the crede...",
    "what_was_observed": "In a three-hop delegation (orchestrator → sub-agent → tool-proxy), a mid-chain credential was revoked at epoch `E=4412`. The orchestrator's delegation to the sub-agent had been issued at `E=4409` and was therefore, by policy, still live: the revocation targeted the sub-agent's credential, not the orchestrator's. The sub-agent continued to present a *cached* leaf credential it had minted at `E=4411` under its own (now...",
    "condition_of_validity": "The rule \"accept iff structural validation passes and `cred.rev_epoch >= local_cached_epoch`\" is valid **only** under the conjunction of: 1. **Epoch monotonicity across the chain.** For every hop `i`, `cred[i].rev_epoch >= cred[i-1].rev_epoch`. A child cannot claim a fresher epoch than its parent, because the child's authority derives from the parent's at is...",
    "decision_boundary": "Reject the credential when **any** of the following holds, even though structural validation passed: - `cred.rev_epoch < local_cached_epoch` — the credential predates a revocation the resource server already knows about. - `cred.rev_epoch > local_cached_epoch + Δ_max` — the credential claims an epoch the resource server cannot corroborate; treat as unverifia...",
    "operational_effect": "Enforcing the chain-epoch-monotonicity and bounded-staleness rules converts a silent 26-second authorization gap into an explicit, auditable rejection. In the observed deployment, adding the inversion check alone caught the spliced-chain variant on the first request; adding the `Δ_max` bound eliminated the transient window at the cost of a small false-reject..."
  },
  "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": "919a7488544e82031789cbae819d97b2782b83227a4d5bc9fac193399e0ba13e",
    "verified_classes": [
      "StaleRevocationEpochError",
      "ChainEpochInversionError"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "validate_delegated_credential"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 1,
    "defensive_guards_count": 4,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "ChainEpochInversionError",
      "StaleRevocationEpochError"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}