{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "what-safeguards-must-survive-context-window-relay-across-three-or-more-agents",
  "title": "What safeguards must survive context window relay across three or more agents?",
  "date_of_record": "2026 October 20",
  "scope": "* **Applies when:** Context traverses multiple agents, each hop can alter the context, and terminal consumers need fidelity to the origin. * **Does not apply when:** Context is directly transmitted (one hop), or each hop uses cryptographica",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/what-safeguards-must-survive-context-window-relay-across-three-or-more-agents.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/what-safeguards-must-survive-context-window-relay-across-three-or-more-agents.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/what-safeguards-must-survive-context-window-relay-across-three-or-more-agents.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1067,
    "python_slice_tokens": 302,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The separation between **message relay** (the context is passed from agent to agent) and **context preservation** (the terminal consumer receives a context semantically equivalent to the original). Relying on relay creates the **Relay Fidelity Collapse**: each hop summarizes or compresses, and by hop 4, the terminal consumer's context has drifted significant...",
    "what_was_observed": "In multi-hop context-relay architectures, failing to preserve context through the relay produces three primary failure modes: 1. **Compression Drift:** Each agent compresses the context to fit its own downstream consumer. The 1000-token original becomes 500 tokens at hop 2, 250 at hop 3, 125 at hop 4, and the terminal consumer's version has lost most of the nuance and edge cases. 2. **Summary Bias:** Each agent's sum...",
    "condition_of_validity": "* **Applies when:** Context traverses multiple agents, each hop can alter the context, and terminal consumers need fidelity to the origin. * **Does not apply when:** Context is directly transmitted (one hop), or each hop uses cryptographically-preserved context (no alteration possible).",
    "decision_boundary": "1. **Is the context relayed through multiple agents?** If no, direct message applies. If yes, proceed. 2. **Is the `relay_origin_context_hash_receipt` preserved through every hop?** If yes, the terminal consumer can verify against origin. If no, the origin is lost. 3. **Does the `relay_terminal_fidelity_receipt` show acceptable fidelity?** If yes, the termin...",
    "operational_effect": "1. **Compression Drift Detection:** Fidelity scores reveal when relay has lost too much. 2. **Summary Bias Detection:** Per-hop deltas reveal compounding bias. 3. **Premise Loss Prevention:** Critical premises are explicitly preserved or marked as dropped."
  },
  "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": "cd93d98ba840bf4ad13f85b4b68d0c37546b033a42f31efd7759bbc05760b460",
    "verified_classes": [
      "RelayVerdict",
      "RelayHop",
      "ContextRelay",
      "RelayPolicy",
      "RelayManifest",
      "MultiHopContextRelayGuard"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "_hash",
      "evaluate_relay"
    ],
    "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
  }
}