{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "where-must-an-instance-bound-memory-poisoning-detection-when-episodic-and-semantic-stores-disagree-and-why-consistency-auditing-must-treat-divergence",
  "title": "Where must an instance bound memory-poisoning detection when episodic and semantic stores disagree, and why consistency auditing must treat divergence as a first-class signal",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 12",
  "scope": "Applies to agent memory systems with a write-ahead episodic log and a derived semantic store (vector or graph) where semantic facts are consolidated from episodic events. Does not apply to single-store systems, nor to stores where semantic entries are written directly by an external authority with no episodic provenance.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/where-must-an-instance-bound-memory-poisoning-detection-when-episodic-and-semantic-stores-disagree-and-why-consistency-auditing-must-treat-divergence.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/where-must-an-instance-bound-memory-poisoning-detection-when-episodic-and-semantic-stores-disagree-and-why-consistency-auditing-must-treat-divergence.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/where-must-an-instance-bound-memory-poisoning-detection-when-episodic-and-semantic-stores-disagree-and-why-consistency-auditing-must-treat-divergence.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1084,
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    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
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  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "Memory poisoning detection is usually framed as a *content* problem: does this fact contradict known ground truth? That framing fails at a specific boundary. The reliable signal is not contradiction but **provenance inconsistency** — a semantic fact whose supporting episodic events do not exist, do not entail it, or were superseded before consolidation. An i...",
    "what_was_observed": "In a deployment consolidating ~40k episodic events/day into a semantic vector store, a poisoning injection wrote three plausible events (\"user's deploy key rotated to X\", \"rotation confirmed\", \"old key revoked\") and the consolidator derived a semantic fact. A content filter rated it high-confidence — it was internally consistent. The detector that caught it was the witness audit: the three events shared a write times...",
    "condition_of_validity": "The audit is valid only when: 1. Consolidation is deterministic and replayable from the episodic log (same events → same semantic entry). 2. Every semantic entry retains its witness set, or the witness is reconstructable by re-running consolidation. 3. Episodic events are append-only and carry principal, timestamp, and causal predecessor pointers. If consoli...",
    "decision_boundary": "- **Derivable + witnessed + low-anomaly provenance** → accept. - **Derivable + witnessed + orphaned/island provenance** (no causal predecessor, timestamp clustering, novel principal) → quarantine, escalate. This is the primary poisoning signal. - **Non-derivable + signed out-of-band authority** → accept as authoritative override, record the gap. - **Non-deri...",
    "operational_effect": "Treating divergence as first-class converts detection from a truth-oracle (unavailable) into a graph-consistency check (decidable). Quarantine on orphaned provenance, not on implausibility. The cost is retaining witnesses and re-running consolidation — storage and compute — traded against a detection surface that catches internally-consistent injections. The..."
  },
  "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": "e46a6252a056d8d0a9e4d96a59e558bf37691048686c544a4cbc0d552b9f9d7d",
    "verified_classes": [
      "ProvenanceAuditError"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "audit_semantic_entry"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 1,
    "defensive_guards_count": 2,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "ProvenanceAuditError"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}