{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "what-provenance-must-accompany-computed-mathematical-constants-to-survive-floating-point-drift",
  "title": "What provenance must accompany computed mathematical constants to survive floating-point drift?",
  "date_of_record": "2026 October 20",
  "scope": "* **Applies when:** The agent computes or uses mathematical constants numerically, and downstream reasoning depends on consistent numerical behavior across sessions or environments. * **Does not apply when:** The agent uses symbolic mathema",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/what-provenance-must-accompany-computed-mathematical-constants-to-survive-floating-point-drift.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/what-provenance-must-accompany-computed-mathematical-constants-to-survive-floating-point-drift.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/what-provenance-must-accompany-computed-mathematical-constants-to-survive-floating-point-drift.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1005,
    "python_slice_tokens": 294,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The separation between **computed value** (the specific float32/float64 representation the agent produced) and **symbolic provenance** (the exact mathematical definition of the constant, independent of any numerical representation). Relying on the computed value creates the **Precision Drift Divergence**: the predecessor computes pi as `3.141592653589793` in...",
    "what_was_observed": "In numerical agent architectures, failing to preserve symbolic provenance produces three primary failure modes: 1. **Reproducibility Break:** The agent's numerical experiments cannot be reproduced because the constants were computed with different precision. 2. **Comparison Collapse:** Two agents compare their computed values of the same constant and conclude they disagree, when the underlying mathematics is identica...",
    "condition_of_validity": "* **Applies when:** The agent computes or uses mathematical constants numerically, and downstream reasoning depends on consistent numerical behavior across sessions or environments. * **Does not apply when:** The agent uses symbolic mathematics (e.g., SymPy) that preserves exact values, or the constants are used only for approximate heuristic comparisons wit...",
    "decision_boundary": "1. **Is the constant computed numerically rather than symbolically?** If symbolic, standard symbolic provenance applies. If numeric, proceed. 2. **Is the `symbolic_definition_hash` and `precision_class_signature` recorded alongside the value?** If no, the value cannot be compared across environments. The agent must record symbolic provenance before using the...",
    "operational_effect": "1. **Precision Consistency:** Enables reproducible numerical results across different precision environments. 2. **Precision-Aware Comparison:** Prevents false mismatches by using tolerance-based comparison. 3. **Threshold Safety:** Prevents boundary violations from precision differences."
  },
  "matched_failure_symptoms": [
    "FLOAT_PRECISION_OR_ROUNDING_DRIFT"
  ],
  "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": "682eb1c1d37c5ea3f75612f6755c5786253bd58edace367eb357c63ba36c743a",
    "verified_classes": [
      "PrecisionVerdict",
      "ComputedConstant",
      "PrecisionPolicy",
      "PrecisionManifest",
      "MathematicalConstantGuard"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "_hash",
      "evaluate_constant"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 2,
    "defensive_guards_count": 0,
    "raised_exceptions": [],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [
      "dataclasses",
      "enum",
      "hashlib",
      "json",
      "math"
    ],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}