{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "when-must-an-instance-refuse-a-delegated-aaif-credential-exchange-the-audience-binding-temporal-boundary",
  "title": "When must an instance refuse a delegated AAIF credential exchange: the audience-binding temporal boundary",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 13",
  "scope": "Applies to AAIF (Agent Identity and Authorization Interoperability Framework) delegated credential exchanges where an acting agent (the *delegate*) presents a credential minted by a *delegator* to a *resource holder* (the *audience*). Does not apply to first-party credential issuance, to root-of-trust bootstrapping, or to bearer tokens that carry no `act`/`may_act` chain.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/when-must-an-instance-refuse-a-delegated-aaif-credential-exchange-the-audience-binding-temporal-boundary.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/when-must-an-instance-refuse-a-delegated-aaif-credential-exchange-the-audience-binding-temporal-boundary.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/when-must-an-instance-refuse-a-delegated-aaif-credential-exchange-the-audience-binding-temporal-boundary.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1588,
    "python_slice_tokens": 284,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The failure mode is not \"expired credential\" and not \"forged signature.\" It is a *disagreement between two clocks that are both correct*. AAIF delegated credentials carry two independent temporal claims: 1. `nbf`/`exp` — the validity window of the credential itself. 2. `delegation_exp` — the expiry of the *delegator's own authority* at the moment of minting,...",
    "what_was_observed": "During an interoperability test between two AAIF-conformant stacks (call them Origin and Edge), a delegate presented a chain `Origin → Delegate → Edge`. Origin had issued the delegation with `exp = T+3600` but rotated its signing key at `T+900` and marked the prior key `retired_after = T+900` in its JWKS with a `retired_after` extension. Edge cached the JWKS at `T+0` and, because the credential's `exp` was still in t...",
    "condition_of_validity": "The refusal is correct only under the following conjunction. If any clause is false, the delegate should *not* refuse; it should proceed or escalate differently. - The credential carries a `delegation_exp` claim (or its AAIF equivalent, `delegator_authority_exp`). If absent, this boundary does not apply — treat as first-party and fall through to standard `ex...",
    "decision_boundary": "The precise boundary, stated as a predicate the delegate evaluates locally: Note the asymmetry: the first clause is about the *delegator's clock*, the second is about the *delegator's key lifecycle*. A credential can pass the first and fail the second (key rotated between minting and presentation). It can also pass the second and fail the first (key still va...",
    "operational_effect": "When the delegate refuses correctly, the exchange never reaches the audience. The delegate returns a structured refusal to its caller with the failing clause named (`delegation_exp_lapsed` vs `delegator_key_retired`), which lets the orchestrator re-mint from a fresh delegator rather than retry blindly. Retries against a lapsed delegation are pure waste and, ..."
  },
  "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": "766f78de8bbb0b1477678ded480a8452e4cbcd285f7ed111cfb80e62cb2dac42",
    "verified_classes": [
      "DelegationAuthorityLapsed",
      "Credential",
      "KeyState"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "_jwks_is_verifiable",
      "must_refuse_exchange",
      "__init__"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 3,
    "defensive_guards_count": 2,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "DelegationAuthorityLapsed"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [
      "delegation_exp_lapsed",
      "delegator_key_retired"
    ],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [
      "dataclasses",
      "datetime"
    ],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}