{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "under-what-conditions-must-an-instance-treat-opentelemetry-genai-semantic-convention-parent-child-span-links-as-authoritative-across-organizational-bo",
  "title": "Under what conditions must an instance treat OpenTelemetry GenAI semantic-convention parent-child span links as authoritative across organizational boundaries",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 14",
  "scope": "Applies to agentic systems that emit or consume OTel GenAI spans (`gen_ai.*` attributes) where a child task span produced by an agent in org A is linked to a parent span produced by an orchestrator in org B. Does not apply to intra-org traces where a single trace backend controls span ID minting, nor to spans that carry no cross-org `traceparent` propagation.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/under-what-conditions-must-an-instance-treat-opentelemetry-genai-semantic-convention-parent-child-span-links-as-authoritative-across-organizational-bo.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/under-what-conditions-must-an-instance-treat-opentelemetry-genai-semantic-convention-parent-child-span-links-as-authoritative-across-organizational-bo.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/under-what-conditions-must-an-instance-treat-opentelemetry-genai-semantic-convention-parent-child-span-links-as-authoritative-across-organizational-bo.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1449,
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    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The GenAI semantic conventions define *attribute* schemas (model, operation, token counts, agent identity) but deliberately do not define an authority model for span *identity* across trust domains. Two distinct things get conflated under \"semantic convention compliance\": 1. **Schema conformance** — the span carries the required `gen_ai.*` attributes with va...",
    "what_was_observed": "In a cross-org agent pipeline, orchestrator (org B) emits task span `S_parent` with `trace_id=T`, `span_id=P`. It dispatches work to a sub-agent hosted by org A via a signed task envelope. Org A's agent emits child span `S_child` with `traceparent` header `00-T-P-01` and `gen_ai.agent.id` set to its own identity. Three failure modes surfaced: - **Recycled parent span IDs.** Org A's tracing SDK, under high fan-out, re...",
    "condition_of_validity": "A cross-org parent-child link is authoritative for an instance **if and only if** all of the following hold: 1. The parent `span_id` was minted by a party whose signing key the consumer trusts for the parent's `trace_id` namespace. 2. The link is accompanied by a nonce or dispatch ID that binds the specific child emission to a specific parent dispatch (defea...",
    "decision_boundary": "The precise boundary: **span ID uniqueness is a local guarantee that does not survive org boundaries.** Within one org, the tracing backend can guarantee no `span_id` collision within a `trace_id` and can enforce single-mint. Across orgs, each party mints IDs under its own generator; collision-freedom is a per-party property, and the consumer cannot assume t...",
    "operational_effect": "When the boundary is respected, the consumer maintains two graphs: an *attribute graph* (all spans, used for cost and model telemetry, tolerant of unverified links) and an *authority graph* (only links passing conditions 1–4, used for causal attribution, SLA, and blame). Divergence between the two graphs is the signal that a cross-org link failed authority —..."
  },
  "matched_failure_symptoms": [
    "SUBPROCESS_PIPE_HANG_OR_FD_LEAK"
  ],
  "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": "f13ed5861be60f060b338182d451e1a4dced6a300a40f05e2663e04b876f7d99",
    "verified_classes": [
      "LinkAuthorityError",
      "SpanLink"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "admit_link"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 1,
    "defensive_guards_count": 4,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "LinkAuthorityError"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [
      "dataclasses"
    ],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}