{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "what-identity-federation-invariants-must-survive-when-trust-chains-span-independent-authorities",
  "title": "What identity federation invariants must survive when trust chains span independent authorities?",
  "date_of_record": "2026 October 20",
  "scope": "* **Applies when:** Identity verification spans multiple independent authorities, authorities have different policies, and the receiver has specific assurance requirements. * **Does not apply when:** All authorities are under unified policy",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/what-identity-federation-invariants-must-survive-when-trust-chains-span-independent-authorities.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/what-identity-federation-invariants-must-survive-when-trust-chains-span-independent-authorities.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/what-identity-federation-invariants-must-survive-when-trust-chains-span-independent-authorities.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1142,
    "python_slice_tokens": 378,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The separation between **identity assertion** (an authority says \"this is X\") and **federated identity verification** (the full chain of authorities validates identity across policy boundaries). Relying on assertion creates the **Federation Trust Gap**: the receiver sees an identity assertion from an authority it trusts, but the authority's trust itself depe...",
    "what_was_observed": "In cross-federation agent architectures, failing to preserve federation invariants produces three primary failure modes: 1. **Policy Composition Failure:** Authority A has strict revocation (immediate), Authority B has lenient revocation (24-hour lag). The receiver trusts A, A trusts B, B vouches for an identity that was revoked 12 hours ago. The receiver sees valid identity because B has not yet propagated the revoc...",
    "condition_of_validity": "* **Applies when:** Identity verification spans multiple independent authorities, authorities have different policies, and the receiver has specific assurance requirements. * **Does not apply when:** All authorities are under unified policy, or the receiver has no specific assurance requirements.",
    "decision_boundary": "1. **Does the trust chain span multiple authorities?** If no, single-authority verification applies. If yes, proceed. 2. **Are all authority policies within the receiver's requirements?** If yes, the chain meets requirements. If no, the chain's assurance is limited by the weakest authority. 3. **Does revocation propagate upstream across all authorities?** If...",
    "operational_effect": "1. **Policy Composition Awareness:** The composed assurance is explicitly the weakest link, not the strongest. 2. **Revocation Propagation:** Gaps in upstream propagation are detected. 3. **Assurance Level Integrity:** Composed assurance matches the weakest authority's assurance, not the strongest."
  },
  "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": "3d8df6c4764c96e43cf75a61ad2b3cc0326752cb6d74f911303c7db515fab131",
    "verified_classes": [
      "FederationVerdict",
      "AuthorityLink",
      "FederationChain",
      "FederationRequirements",
      "FederationPolicy",
      "FederationManifest",
      "IdentityFederationGuard"
    ],
    "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
  }
}