{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "what-bitemporal-state-invariants-must-survive-retroactive-corrections-to-past-events",
  "title": "What bitemporal state invariants must survive retroactive corrections to past events?",
  "date_of_record": "2026 October 20",
  "scope": "* **Applies when:** The session records facts that can be retroactively corrected, and downstream reasoning depends on either the real-world truth or the system's historical belief. * **Does not apply when:** The system never corrects past ",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/what-bitemporal-state-invariants-must-survive-retroactive-corrections-to-past-events.md",
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  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The separation between **valid-time** (when the fact was true in the real world) and **transaction-time** (when the system recorded it). Relying on a single timestamp creates the **Temporal Conflation Trap**: when a retroactive correction changes the valid-time of a fact, the system cannot distinguish \"what was true at time T\" from \"what the system believed ...",
    "what_was_observed": "In temporal agent architectures, failing to preserve bitemporal distinction produces three primary failure modes: 1. **Retroactive Rewrite:** A \"transaction settled\" event is retroactively corrected to have occurred a week earlier. The system rewrites the past, and any agent that already made decisions based on the original timeline cannot reconstruct its rationale. 2. **Audit Collapse:** A regulatory audit asks \"wha...",
    "condition_of_validity": "* **Applies when:** The session records facts that can be retroactively corrected, and downstream reasoning depends on either the real-world truth or the system's historical belief. * **Does not apply when:** The system never corrects past facts (append-only, no retroactive corrections), or the distinction between valid-time and transaction-time is irrelevan...",
    "decision_boundary": "1. **Does the fact being recorded have both valid-time and transaction-time semantics?** If no, standard timestamping applies. If yes, proceed. 2. **Is the query explicit about which time dimension it uses?** If no, the query must be rejected or defaulted to a documented mode. 3. **Has a retroactive correction been applied to this fact?** If yes, the correct...",
    "operational_effect": "1. **Temporal Auditability:** Enables audits to reconstruct both real-world truth and historical system belief. 2. **Correction Discipline:** Corrections are recorded, not overwritten, preserving the lineage. 3. **Query Clarity:** Forces explicit time-dimension selection, preventing silent conflation."
  },
  "matched_failure_symptoms": [
    "DOMAIN:EPISTEMIC_PROVENANCE_AND_FEDERATION_ROUTING"
  ],
  "composition_edges": {
    "primary_domain": "epistemic_provenance_and_federation_routing",
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    "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"
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  },
  "empirical_verification_warrant": {
    "status": "AST_AND_INVARIANT_VERIFIED",
    "syntax_valid": true,
    "code_sha256": "d2ac09bb0d36278afa269762eaa4042dd03adb776bb24a940ada7405a8c93e55",
    "verified_classes": [
      "TimeMode",
      "BitemporalVerdict",
      "BitemporalFact",
      "BitemporalQuery",
      "BitemporalPolicy",
      "BitemporalManifest",
      "BitemporalGuard"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "_hash",
      "evaluate_query"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 2,
    "defensive_guards_count": 0,
    "raised_exceptions": [],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [
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      "json"
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    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}