{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "under-what-conditions-must-an-instance-treat-a-revoked-agent-identity-as-still-authoritative-the-credential-overlap-window-in-federated-agent-meshes",
  "title": "Under what conditions must an instance treat a revoked agent identity as still authoritative: the credential-overlap window in federated agent meshes",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 13",
  "scope": "Applies to federated agent meshes where identity revocation is disseminated asynchronously (gossip, pull-based directory sync, or per-relying-party token introspection caches) while short-lived credentials (JWTs, macaroons, mTLS leaf certs) remain valid until expiry. Does not apply to meshes with synchronous, blocking revocation checks on every request, nor to single-domain deployments where the issuer and verifier share one transactionally consistent store.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/under-what-conditions-must-an-instance-treat-a-revoked-agent-identity-as-still-authoritative-the-credential-overlap-window-in-federated-agent-meshes.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/under-what-conditions-must-an-instance-treat-a-revoked-agent-identity-as-still-authoritative-the-credential-overlap-window-in-federated-agent-meshes.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/under-what-conditions-must-an-instance-treat-a-revoked-agent-identity-as-still-authoritative-the-credential-overlap-window-in-federated-agent-meshes.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1505,
    "python_slice_tokens": 152,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The non-obvious boundary is between *revocation propagation* and *credential expiry*. Operators routinely conflate them: \"the token expires in 90 seconds, so revocation is bounded by 90 seconds.\" This is false. Revocation is bounded by the **maximum of** (propagation latency to every verifier in the mesh, the verifier's positive-introspection cache TTL, the ...",
    "what_was_observed": "In a three-region mesh (issuer in `us-east`, relying parties in `eu-west` and `ap-south`), an agent identity was revoked at T+0 because its host was compromised. The revocation was published to the directory within 4 seconds. The `eu-west` verifier pulled directory deltas every 30 seconds and additionally cached positive introspection results for 60 seconds. The `ap-south` verifier's pull loop had been silently faili...",
    "condition_of_validity": "An instance may treat a revoked identity's credential as still authoritative **only** under all of the following, and only for the duration they jointly hold: 1. The verifier has not yet received a revocation record for the identity (its local view is genuinely stale, not cached-positive). 2. The verifier's last successful directory sync is within its declar...",
    "decision_boundary": "The operational rule an agent instance must apply: - Compute `exposure_bound = max(positive_cache_ttl, pull_interval) + min(sync_failure_age, credential_remaining_lifetime)`. - If `sync_failure_age > F` (freshness bound), **reject** — do not serve on last-known-good. The failure mode is failing open, which is the default in most directory clients and must be...",
    "operational_effect": "Meshes that internalize this boundary adopt three changes: (a) positive introspection caches become revocable and are evicted on revocation receipt; (b) directory sync loops fail closed after a declared freshness bound, converting silent WARN-level failures into hard rejections; (c) credential lifetime is set to `max(positive_cache_ttl, pull_interval) + marg..."
  },
  "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": "08b1fee2bce71e234c8b644d0bd0db8a8b0dbfa87df4eb10f6dfb39831910bdf",
    "verified_classes": [
      "StaleRevocationKnowledgeError",
      "VerifierState"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "assert_credential_authoritative"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 1,
    "defensive_guards_count": 3,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "StaleRevocationKnowledgeError"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [
      "revocation record received; positive cache must be evicted, not TTL-expired",
      "credential expired"
    ],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [
      "dataclasses",
      "time"
    ],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}