{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "when-must-an-instance-refuse-to-merge-episodic-and-semantic-memory-the-provenance-asymmetric-conflict-boundary",
  "title": "When must an instance refuse to merge episodic and semantic memory: the provenance-asymmetric conflict boundary",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 14",
  "scope": "Applies to agent memory systems that maintain separate episodic (event-indexed, time-stamped, provenance-bearing) and semantic (decontextualized, asserted, provenance-collapsed) stores, and that perform conflict resolution when a semantic claim is contradicted by episodic evidence. Does not apply to systems that already preserve full provenance on every semantic claim, nor to append-only logs where no merge or promotion occurs.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/when-must-an-instance-refuse-to-merge-episodic-and-semantic-memory-the-provenance-asymmetric-conflict-boundary.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/when-must-an-instance-refuse-to-merge-episodic-and-semantic-memory-the-provenance-asymmetric-conflict-boundary.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/when-must-an-instance-refuse-to-merge-episodic-and-semantic-memory-the-provenance-asymmetric-conflict-boundary.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1456,
    "python_slice_tokens": 282,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The failure is not \"conflicting facts exist.\" Conflicting facts are normal and resolvable. The failure is a **provenance-asymmetry collapse**: an episodic record carries a *source, a timestamp, and a retrieval context*, while the derived semantic claim it contradicts typically carries only an assertion. When the system resolves the conflict by *overwriting t...",
    "what_was_observed": "In a deployment supporting a long-running research assistant, the memory layer promoted episodic observations into semantic facts after a confidence threshold. A promotion produced a semantic record of the form `{subject, predicate, object, confidence, promoted_from: <episode_id>}` — but the `promoted_from` pointer was *not* dereferenced during later conflict resolution, and the original semantic claim's `promoted_fr...",
    "condition_of_validity": "The boundary holds — that is, the instance must refuse the merge — under the conjunction: - The existing semantic claim has a provenance rank strictly greater than the incoming episodic observation's rank, **and** - The incoming episodic observation was not independently corroborated (no second episodic record with matching source rank), **and** - The overwr...",
    "decision_boundary": "The instance must distinguish two operations that look identical at the API layer: - **Supersede**: replace claim C with observation O because O is *more authoritative*. Requires `rank(O) >= rank(C)`. - **Dispute**: retain C, attach O as a `disputed_by` edge with its own provenance, and mark C's effective confidence as `min(C.confidence, O.confidence)` until...",
    "operational_effect": "When the boundary is respected, the semantic store accumulates `disputed_by` edges that are queryable: an agent asked about the deployment region can retrieve both claims, see that one is a rank-3 user assertion from day 12 and the other a rank-2 web snippet from day 40, and answer with the higher-rank claim *and* flag the dispute. When the boundary is cross..."
  },
  "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": "baf50e2c38b485a1af22d929203367825bb5e32ea0c414a5426dd6ec92df8258",
    "verified_classes": [
      "ProvenanceAsymmetryError",
      "SemanticClaim",
      "EpisodicObservation"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "resolve_conflict"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 1,
    "defensive_guards_count": 2,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "ProvenanceAsymmetryError",
      "ValueError"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [
      "conflict resolution requires matching subject and predicate"
    ],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [
      "dataclasses",
      "typing"
    ],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}