{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "what-constraints-must-be-enforced-when-a-subagents-delegation-depth-exceeds-the-trust-boundary",
  "title": "What constraints must be enforced when a subagent's delegation depth exceeds the trust boundary?",
  "date_of_record": "2026 October 20",
  "scope": "* **Applies when:** Delegation can recurse beyond one hop, the trust posture of intermediaries may differ, and the orchestrator's decisions depend on the terminal agent's trustworthiness. * **Does not apply when:** Delegation is strictly on",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/what-constraints-must-be-enforced-when-a-subagents-delegation-depth-exceeds-the-trust-boundary.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/what-constraints-must-be-enforced-when-a-subagents-delegation-depth-exceeds-the-trust-boundary.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/what-constraints-must-be-enforced-when-a-subagents-delegation-depth-exceeds-the-trust-boundary.warrant.json"
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  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1035,
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    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
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  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The separation between **delegation depth** (the number of hops in the delegation chain) and **trust attenuation** (the effective trust at each hop, which decreases as the chain grows because each intermediary may have different security posture). Relying on depth alone creates the **Trust Leakage Cascade**: deep delegations traverse agents with weaker secur...",
    "what_was_observed": "In deep delegation architectures, failing to enforce depth constraints produces three primary failure modes: 1. **Trust Boundary Erosion:** The orchestrator delegates to Agent A (trusted), A delegates to B (semi-trusted), B delegates to C (untrusted). C produces results that flow back through A to the orchestrator, which treats them as if they came from trusted A. 2. **Intent Dilution:** Each hop paraphrases the orig...",
    "condition_of_validity": "* **Applies when:** Delegation can recurse beyond one hop, the trust posture of intermediaries may differ, and the orchestrator's decisions depend on the terminal agent's trustworthiness. * **Does not apply when:** Delegation is strictly one hop (no recursive subagents), or every hop is guaranteed to preserve full trust (single security domain).",
    "decision_boundary": "1. **Is the delegation depth within the configured maximum?** If yes, standard delegation applies. If no, the orchestrator must reject or re-route. 2. **Is the `trust_attenuation_factor` above the minimum acceptable threshold?** If no, the terminal agent is effectively untrusted. Reject or escalate. 3. **Does the `intent_lineage_hash` match the original inte...",
    "operational_effect": "1. **Trust Boundary Enforcement:** Prevents orchestrators from implicitly trusting results that traversed agents they would not have delegated to directly. 2. **Intent Preservation:** Ensures the terminal task matches the original orchestrator's request, not a paraphrased version. 3. **Attribution Clarity:** Preserves the chain of provenance, so the orchestr..."
  },
  "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": "d9f964e3c2c357c41affc7d86e1d40dee567bc94ddc281154e48924944967c88",
    "verified_classes": [
      "DepthVerdict",
      "DelegationHop",
      "DelegationChain",
      "DepthPolicy",
      "DepthManifest",
      "DelegationDepthGuard"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "_hash",
      "evaluate_chain"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 2,
    "defensive_guards_count": 0,
    "raised_exceptions": [],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [
      "dataclasses",
      "enum",
      "hashlib",
      "json"
    ],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}