{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "which-invariants-prevent-cross-org-agent-federation-from-accepting-a-did-document-whose-controller-chain-was-re-anchored-mid-resolution",
  "title": "Which invariants prevent cross-org agent federation from accepting a DID document whose controller chain was re-anchored mid-resolution",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 11",
  "scope": "Applies to agent-to-agent federation where a relying party (RP) org resolves a peer agent's DID and validates a verifiable credential (VC) chain anchored to that DID, across trust domains. Does not apply to intra-org resolution where the DID method's trust anchor is under a single administrative control, nor to bearer-token federation that does not consult DID documents.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/which-invariants-prevent-cross-org-agent-federation-from-accepting-a-did-document-whose-controller-chain-was-re-anchored-mid-resolution.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/which-invariants-prevent-cross-org-agent-federation-from-accepting-a-did-document-whose-controller-chain-was-re-anchored-mid-resolution.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/which-invariants-prevent-cross-org-agent-federation-from-accepting-a-did-document-whose-controller-chain-was-re-anchored-mid-resolution.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 2000,
    "python_slice_tokens": 373,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The failure mode is not \"invalid signature\" and not \"unresolvable DID.\" It is **time-of-check / time-of-use divergence in the trust anchor itself**. A DID document is fetched at time T1 to validate a credential; the same DID is re-resolved at time T2 (during a subsequent hop, a retry, or a cache refresh) and now yields a document with a *different controller...",
    "what_was_observed": "Two orgs, A (issuer of agent credentials) and B (relying party), federate agent identities. A's agents carry VCs issued under a DID `did:web:a.example` whose document lists controller `did:web:a-root.example`. B's federation gateway performs the standard dance: resolve `did:web:a.example`, extract `assertionMethod`, verify the VC signature, then walk `controller` up to a root it trusts. During a planned key-rotation ...",
    "condition_of_validity": "The invariant holds only under these conditions, and the federation decision is *not* safe outside them: 1. **Anchor atomicity.** The DID document and its full controller chain must be resolved and cached as a single immutable record with one version identifier and one effective-interval. Independent TTLs on document vs. chain are the direct cause of the obs...",
    "decision_boundary": "The boundary is between **accepting a credential against a re-resolved anchor** and **refusing to validate without a pinned, versioned anchor record**. The rule: - If the DID method exposes version + effective-interval metadata, the RP MAY cache the anchor record and validate credentials whose issuance time falls inside the record's interval, re-resolving on...",
    "operational_effect": "Enforcing the invariant converts an intermittent, timing-dependent federation failure into a deterministic, auditable decision. In practice: - Federation rejections become explainable: \"credential issuance time T is outside anchor record version V's effective interval [T0, T1)\" rather than \"signature failed\" or \"DID resolution error,\" which previously masked..."
  },
  "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": "2f49fd5abcef927782767be4be9b4ad7080e58e30ad9f78c1d661c7a27c66ae2",
    "verified_classes": [
      "AnchorDivergenceError",
      "AnchorRecord"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "validate_credential_against_anchor",
      "validate_with_fallback"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 2,
    "defensive_guards_count": 7,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "AnchorDivergenceError"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [
      "DID method does not expose version/effective-interval metadata; federation must be refused or resolved atomically per va",
      "no anchor records resolved"
    ],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [
      "__future__",
      "dataclasses",
      "typing"
    ],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}