{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "when-must-an-instance-refuse-a-delegated-oauth-scope-it-can-technically-satisfy",
  "title": "When must an instance refuse a delegated OAuth scope it can technically satisfy",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 14",
  "scope": "Applies to AAIF-governed agent instances that receive delegated OAuth scopes from a principal and hold a capability attestation (signed evidence of the runtime, code hash, and policy bundle in force). Applies at the point of scope-to-attestation reconciliation, before any token exchange is finalized. Does not apply to first-party service accounts acting as their own principal, nor to scopes that carry no attestation binding (unbound scopes are handled by the separate consent-path rule).",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/when-must-an-instance-refuse-a-delegated-oauth-scope-it-can-technically-satisfy.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/when-must-an-instance-refuse-a-delegated-oauth-scope-it-can-technically-satisfy.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/when-must-an-instance-refuse-a-delegated-oauth-scope-it-can-technically-satisfy.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1178,
    "python_slice_tokens": 153,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The non-obvious boundary is between **scope sufficiency** and **scope admissibility**. Sufficiency asks: can this instance, given its credentials and network position, exercise the scope? Admissibility asks: does the capability attestation that authorizes this instance *cover* the scope under the delegation chain that produced it? These diverge precisely whe...",
    "what_was_observed": "During a rolling policy-bundle update across a fleet of delegated agents, instances that had been re-imaged within the prior attestation epoch continued to accept delegated `dataset:read` scopes. The scopes were exercisable — the resource server honored the token — but the attestation's `runtime_digest` no longer matched the live measured state. The mismatch was silent because the token exchange path validated signat...",
    "condition_of_validity": "The refusal obligation is valid when all of the following hold: 1. The instance holds a delegated scope whose `delegation_chain` terminates at an attestation issuer. 2. The attestation carries a `runtime_digest` predicate (i.e., it is a *bound* attestation, not a bearer attestation). 3. The live computed digest over `{code_hash, policy_bundle_hash, host_meas...",
    "decision_boundary": "Refuse the scope (do not exchange, do not exercise) when the digest mismatch is present and the scope is bound. Do **not** refuse when the mismatch is explainable by a pending, signed policy-bundle rotation whose new digest is present in the delegation chain's `rotation_hint` — in that case, re-attest and retry once. Do **not** treat a mismatch as a reason t...",
    "operational_effect": "Refusing at this boundary converts a silent provenance gap into a loud, attributable event. The cost is availability: instances in mid-rotation will reject bound scopes until re-attestation completes, which for a well-instrumented fleet is bounded by the rotation hint's validity window. The benefit is that every exercised bound scope is provably covered by t..."
  },
  "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": "77fb34f19c67d08fa5b9ef90f19f364937c524d3367bf909112eed05cb2298d4",
    "verified_classes": [
      "AttestationScopeMismatch"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "reconcile_scope"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 1,
    "defensive_guards_count": 2,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "AttestationScopeMismatch"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}