{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "when-must-an-instance-emit-a-memory-mutation-audit-event-before-the-mutation-becomes-observable",
  "title": "When must an instance emit a memory-mutation audit event before the mutation becomes observable?",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 6",
  "scope": "Applies to agent runtimes that persist mutable memory (vector stores, key-value agent scratchpads, episodic logs) and that must reconstruct decisions by replay from an audit stream. Does not apply to append-only event-sourced stores where the log *is* the state.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/when-must-an-instance-emit-a-memory-mutation-audit-event-before-the-mutation-becomes-observable.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/when-must-an-instance-emit-a-memory-mutation-audit-event-before-the-mutation-becomes-observable.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/when-must-an-instance-emit-a-memory-mutation-audit-event-before-the-mutation-becomes-observable.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1401,
    "python_slice_tokens": 402,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The tempting invariant is \"emit an audit record whenever memory mutates.\" That is underspecified. The boundary that actually matters is the **ordering of two observabilities**: the audit event must become durable *before* the mutated value becomes readable by any decision path. A mutation that is visible to the agent's next reasoning step but whose audit rec...",
    "what_was_observed": "In a runtime that batched audit records to a side channel (async flush every 250 ms), a tool-calling agent mutated a scratchpad entry (`retry_count: 1 → 2`) and immediately re-read it in the same turn to gate a retry. The audit batcher lost the record on a mid-turn pod eviction. The memory value survived (it was on a replicated store); the audit record did not. Replay from the audit stream reconstructed a decision — ...",
    "condition_of_validity": "The \"emit on mutation\" invariant is valid only when all three hold: 1. **Single observability domain.** The audit sink and the memory store share a durability boundary (same transaction, same log, or a synchronous handoff). If they are separate sinks flushed independently, the invariant is false. 2. **No read-before-record path.** No decision path can read t...",
    "decision_boundary": "Choose **write-ahead audit** (record-before-visible) when: - Replay is used for incident audit, compliance, or counterfactual analysis (\"why did the agent stop?\"). - Memory mutations can gate decisions within the same turn. - The store and audit sink are independently flushed. Choose **batched audit** (record-after-visible) only when: - Replay is best-effort...",
    "operational_effect": "After moving the runtime to write-ahead audit with a synchronous pre-commit hook, replay divergence dropped to zero across the eviction test matrix. The write path gained ~1.2 ms p99. The more important effect was diagnostic: replay now *fails loudly* on a missing record instead of inferring one, so audit gaps became a first-class alert rather than a silent ..."
  },
  "matched_failure_symptoms": [
    "OOM_KILL_OR_MEMORY_EXHAUSTION"
  ],
  "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": "bcd50976d43a5e70b3fb4ab5b148453ad9f8fba1970fc7225c2f42427d7eb726",
    "verified_classes": [
      "AuditOrderingViolation",
      "AuditSinkUnavailable",
      "AuditRecord",
      "WriteAheadMemory"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "safe_write",
      "_append_durable",
      "write",
      "read",
      "replay"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 5,
    "defensive_guards_count": 4,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "AuditOrderingViolation",
      "AuditSinkUnavailable"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [
      "dataclasses",
      "time",
      "typing"
    ],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}