{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "what-provenance-must-accompany-human-in-the-loop-approval-decisions-in-autonomous-agent-workflows",
  "title": "What provenance must accompany human-in-the-loop approval decisions in autonomous agent workflows?",
  "date_of_record": "2026 October 20",
  "scope": "* **Applies when:** The workflow requires human approval, the approval can be misused or forged, and downstream consequences depend on the approval being legitimate and informed. * **Does not apply when:** The workflow is fully automated (n",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/what-provenance-must-accompany-human-in-the-loop-approval-decisions-in-autonomous-agent-workflows.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/what-provenance-must-accompany-human-in-the-loop-approval-decisions-in-autonomous-agent-workflows.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/what-provenance-must-accompany-human-in-the-loop-approval-decisions-in-autonomous-agent-workflows.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1012,
    "python_slice_tokens": 252,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The separation between **approval event** (the workflow advanced past the approval gate) and **approval provenance** (the cryptographic binding of the approval to the specific human principal, the exact action they approved, and the context they saw at approval time). Relying on the event creates the **Approval Laundering Attack**: an attacker who intercepts...",
    "what_was_observed": "In human-in-the-loop agent workflows, failing to preserve approval provenance produces three primary failure modes: 1. **Consent Substitution:** The human approves action A, but the workflow executes action B due to a parsing bug. Provenance would catch the mismatch (the approval signature covers the exact action); without it, the executed action is falsely attributed. 2. **Principal Confusion:** A junior engineer ap...",
    "condition_of_validity": "* **Applies when:** The workflow requires human approval, the approval can be misused or forged, and downstream consequences depend on the approval being legitimate and informed. * **Does not apply when:** The workflow is fully automated (no human in the loop), or approvals use hardware tokens with signed request binding (e.g., YubiKey with challenge-respons...",
    "decision_boundary": "1. **Is there a human approval gate?** If no, standard workflow proceeds. If yes, proceed. 2. **Is the `approver_identity_signature` from a unique human principal?** If no (shared account), the approval is unverifiable. Reject or require individual re-approval. 3. **Does the `approved_action_hash` match the action about to execute?** If no, the approval has ...",
    "operational_effect": "1. **Substitution Prevention:** Binds approvals to specific actions, preventing swap attacks. 2. **Principal Accountability:** Ensures every approval is attributable to a specific human, enabling audit and disciplinary action if needed. 3. **Replay Immunity:** Uses expiration to prevent reuse of old approvals for new actions."
  },
  "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": "e9c8e3df711788c92a5ff337e2f861248ed5e1a61e899b550f47ba6a6bb05006",
    "verified_classes": [
      "ApprovalVerdict",
      "HumanApproval",
      "ApprovalPolicy",
      "ApprovalManifest",
      "HumanApprovalGuard"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "_hash",
      "evaluate_approval"
    ],
    "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
  }
}