{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "what-federation-authority-limit-invariants-prevent-agents-from-delegating-beyond-their-reachable-authority",
  "title": "What federation authority-limit invariants prevent agents from delegating beyond their reachable authority?",
  "date_of_record": "2026 October 20",
  "scope": "* **Applies when:** Agents operate across federations, delegate authority to peers, and downstream operations depend on delegated authority being valid. * **Does not apply when:** All agents are in a single federation, or delegations are cr",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/what-federation-authority-limit-invariants-prevent-agents-from-delegating-beyond-their-reachable-authority.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/what-federation-authority-limit-invariants-prevent-agents-from-delegating-beyond-their-reachable-authority.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/what-federation-authority-limit-invariants-prevent-agents-from-delegating-beyond-their-reachable-authority.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1129,
    "python_slice_tokens": 306,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The separation between **delegation intent** (the agent intends to grant authority) and **delegation validity** (the delegatee is within the delegator's federation reach, and the specific authority being delegated is within the delegator's own scope). Relying on intent creates the **Federation Overreach**: the agent delegates authority to a peer in another f...",
    "what_was_observed": "In federated agent architectures, failing to respect authority limits produces three primary failure modes: 1. **Cross-Federation Delegation Rejection:** Agent A in federation X delegates to Agent B in federation Y. Federation Y does not recognize X's delegations, so B's actions are rejected as unauthorized. A believes delegation succeeded because Y's agent accepted it locally, causing silent failure of downstream op...",
    "condition_of_validity": "* **Applies when:** Agents operate across federations, delegate authority to peers, and downstream operations depend on delegated authority being valid. * **Does not apply when:** All agents are in a single federation, or delegations are cryptographically bounded by the delegator's actual scope (no overreach possible).",
    "decision_boundary": "1. **Is the delegatee in a different federation than the delegator?** If no, single-federation delegation applies. If yes, proceed. 2. **Does the delegatee's federation recognize the delegator's authority (`delegation_federation_reach_receipt`)?** If no, the delegation will fail in the delegatee's federation. Do not proceed. 3. **Is the delegated scope a str...",
    "operational_effect": "1. **Cross-Federation Failure Prevention:** Delegations are checked against federation reach before issuance. 2. **Scope Overreach Prevention:** Delegated scope is bounded by the delegator's own scope. 3. **Chain Validity:** Multi-hop delegations are validated end-to-end, ensuring every hop is recognized by its federation."
  },
  "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": "d4f81240118b761a36bd674c284eee888dd1dbdd2dd370a61414332f1fda7027",
    "verified_classes": [
      "DelegationVerdict",
      "DelegationRequest",
      "DelegationPolicy",
      "DelegationManifest",
      "FederationDelegationGuard"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "_hash",
      "evaluate_delegation"
    ],
    "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
  }
}