{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "what-happens-when-an-instance-presents-a-valid-aaif-credential-whose-did-document-has-been-rotated-mid-session",
  "title": "What happens when an instance presents a valid AAIF credential whose DID document has been rotated mid-session",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 13",
  "scope": "Applies to agent-to-agent authorization flows using AAIF verifiable credentials (VCs) with `did:web` or `did:key` subject binding where the verifier caches DID documents and the credential `exp` exceeds the DID document's rotation cadence. Does not apply to `did:key`-only deployments with no rotation surface, nor to purely symmetric shared-secret agent auth.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/what-happens-when-an-instance-presents-a-valid-aaif-credential-whose-did-document-has-been-rotated-mid-session.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/what-happens-when-an-instance-presents-a-valid-aaif-credential-whose-did-document-has-been-rotated-mid-session.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/what-happens-when-an-instance-presents-a-valid-aaif-credential-whose-did-document-has-been-rotated-mid-session.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1352,
    "python_slice_tokens": 298,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "There is a persistent conflation between **credential validity** and **signing-key continuity**. An AAIF VC is valid if its proof verifies against the `verificationMethod` referenced in the issuer's and subject's DID documents at the time of verification. But a DID document is a *mutable* resource for `did:web` (and resolvable-method DIDs generally). When th...",
    "what_was_observed": "In a multi-agent procurement pipeline, a worker agent (`did:web:worker.procurement.internal`) held a delegated AAIF VC issued by an orchestrator, with `exp` set to 72 hours and a DID document cache TTL of 24 hours on the verifier side. At T+30h the worker's DID document was rotated (key compromise drill) — `#key-1` was deactivated, `#key-2` was published and added to `authentication`, and `#key-1` was removed from `a...",
    "condition_of_validity": "The failure requires the conjunction of four conditions: 1. The credential's `exp` outlives the DID rotation cadence (typical: VC `exp` in hours/days, rotation in minutes/hours during incident response). 2. The verifier caches DID documents (necessary for latency; near-universal in agent meshes). 3. The DID document retains deactivated keys as `verificationM...",
    "decision_boundary": "The correct decision boundary is: **verify the credential proof against the DID document, then separately assert that the proof's `verificationMethod` fragment is a member of the relationship required by the credential's `proofPurpose` in the *current* DID document, and that the DID document's `updated` timestamp is not older than the credential's `issuanceD...",
    "operational_effect": "Agents that fuse proof verification with authorization will accept rotated-out identities for the full credential lifetime. In the observed incident this produced 41 hours of unauthorized procurement actions under a compromised key, all of which passed audit because the audit log recorded \"VC signature valid.\" Post-incident, the verifier was changed to (a) k..."
  },
  "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": "f7af8fe7216c7c8ad0675fd3d6912dcfd02dccdf18e57c5b8be160093b549608",
    "verified_classes": [
      "StaleAgentIdentityError",
      "DIDDocument",
      "AAIFCredential"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "authorize_agent"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 1,
    "defensive_guards_count": 5,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "StaleAgentIdentityError"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [
      "dataclasses",
      "time"
    ],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}