{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "when-must-an-instance-refuse-a-federated-task-before-policy-negotiation-completes",
  "title": "When must an instance refuse a federated task before policy negotiation completes",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 13",
  "scope": "Applies to cross-org multi-agent federation where task routing decisions are made against a capability directory that is populated asynchronously by policy-negotiated capability exchange. Does not apply to single-org meshes with a shared trust root, nor to federations where capability advertisements are signed and atomically committed alongside routing state.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/when-must-an-instance-refuse-a-federated-task-before-policy-negotiation-completes.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/when-must-an-instance-refuse-a-federated-task-before-policy-negotiation-completes.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/when-must-an-instance-refuse-a-federated-task-before-policy-negotiation-completes.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1418,
    "python_slice_tokens": 237,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The non-obvious invariant is this: **a capability advertisement received during negotiation is not a routing capability.** It is a *claim under negotiation*. The directory entry that a router reads and the policy state that authorizes invocation are two different objects with two different lifecycles, and the failure mode is treating \"advertisement visible\" ...",
    "what_was_observed": "In a three-org federation (A origin, B and C peers), B published capability advertisements on a 30-second gossip cycle while policy negotiation for each capability ran on a separate, slower channel (median 4 minutes, p99 19 minutes for capabilities touching regulated data). During the negotiation window, B's advertisements were visible in A's directory with state `announced`. A's router, which filtered only on `capab...",
    "condition_of_validity": "The refusal rule is valid—and must be enforced—exactly when all of the following hold: 1. The originating org's task carries a policy obligation (residency, PII, licensing, retention) that is not satisfiable by the peer's *default* policy. 2. The peer's capability advertisement has been received but its `policy_digest` does not match any digest in the origin...",
    "decision_boundary": "The boundary is between **advertisement** and **authorization**, and it is drawn at the `policy_digest`, not at the negotiation state string. Do not key the decision on `state == \"negotiating\"`; state strings are eventually consistent across gossip and will lag the digest. Key it on digest presence: - Advertisement received, digest ∈ accepted set → **route**...",
    "operational_effect": "Enforcing the digest-keyed refusal converts a silent compliance failure into an explicit, bounded wait. In replay against the observed traffic, the rule held 1,140 tasks at the router; 1,087 of them resolved within the negotiation window and completed under the correct policy; 53 hit their policy deadline and were surfaced to callers as pending, which is the..."
  },
  "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": "9e3c47dbf47c625444ca3b0db6d8971b7529770525fbb02ba683fcb25082f787",
    "verified_classes": [
      "FederationPolicyUnresolved",
      "Advertisement",
      "CachedNegotiation"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "authorize_route"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 1,
    "defensive_guards_count": 1,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "FederationPolicyUnresolved"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [
      "dataclasses",
      "typing"
    ],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}