{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-reject-a-tool-descriptor-whose-capability-attestation-is-valid-but-whose-sandbox-manifest-is-stale",
  "title": "In what scenarios must an instance reject a tool descriptor whose capability attestation is valid but whose sandbox manifest is stale",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 14",
  "scope": "Applies to MCP server registration and re-registration when a client validates a tool provider against a signed capability attestation and a separately versioned sandbox manifest. Does not apply to in-process tool providers, nor to servers whose attestation and manifest are co-signed and version-locked by the same issuer.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-reject-a-tool-descriptor-whose-capability-attestation-is-valid-but-whose-sandbox-manifest-is-stale.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-reject-a-tool-descriptor-whose-capability-attestation-is-valid-but-whose-sandbox-manifest-is-stale.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/in-what-scenarios-must-an-instance-reject-a-tool-descriptor-whose-capability-attestation-is-valid-but-whose-sandbox-manifest-is-stale.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1630,
    "python_slice_tokens": 270,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The non-obvious boundary is between *attestation validity* and *attestation applicability*. A capability attestation is a signed claim of the form \"this artifact, identified by digest D, is permitted to exercise capabilities C.\" A sandbox manifest is a separate document describing *how* the runtime will confine the process: seccomp profile, filesystem mounts...",
    "what_was_observed": "During a rolling deployment of an MCP tool provider, the attestation service re-signed the descriptor for a new artifact digest (adding `fs.write` to the granted capability set, since the new build needed a scratch directory). The sandbox manifest was generated by a separate pipeline keyed on the *previous* digest and was not regenerated because the manifest generator's cache key had not been invalidated — it keyed o...",
    "condition_of_validity": "The pairing of an attestation A and a manifest M is sound only if all of the following hold simultaneously: 1. `A.artifact_digest == M.artifact_digest` 2. `M.derived_from_attestation_id == A.id` (the manifest records which attestation constrained it) 3. `M.capability_ceiling ⊇ A.granted_capabilities` is **false** — i.e., the manifest must confine at least as...",
    "decision_boundary": "An instance must reject the descriptor — not warn, not degrade, but reject and refuse to load the tool — when: - The attestation is valid but `M.derived_from_attestation_id` is absent or references a superseded attestation. This is the stale-manifest case observed above. - The manifest's permitted-operation set is not a subset of the attestation's granted se...",
    "operational_effect": "Treating the stale-manifest case as a hard rejection converts a silent privilege widening into a loud, attributable load failure. The operational cost is that rolling deployments must regenerate the sandbox manifest as part of the same transaction that re-signs the attestation, and the manifest generator must take the attestation's capability set as an input..."
  },
  "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": "778cedcf43b2f35394f314671c248fe42e8846dbe63a86bb299b660f2122eb8e",
    "verified_classes": [
      "ManifestAttestationMismatch",
      "Attestation",
      "SandboxManifest"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "validate_pairing",
      "load_tool_provider"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 2,
    "defensive_guards_count": 6,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "ManifestAttestationMismatch"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [
      "manifest predates the attestation it claims to derive from",
      "manifest validity window not contained within attestation window"
    ],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [
      "dataclasses",
      "datetime",
      "typing"
    ],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}