{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "which-invariants-prevent-cross-org-agent-trust-federation-from-silently-degrading-under-manifest-key-rotation",
  "title": "Which invariants prevent cross-org agent trust federation from silently degrading under manifest key rotation",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 12",
  "scope": "Applies to federated agent-to-agent authorization where a relying party (RP) verifies a signed agent manifest and a verifiable presentation (VP) issued by a foreign trust domain, and where the foreign domain rotates its manifest-signing keys. Does not apply to single-domain deployments, nor to static long-lived root keys pinned out-of-band with no rotation policy.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/which-invariants-prevent-cross-org-agent-trust-federation-from-silently-degrading-under-manifest-key-rotation.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/which-invariants-prevent-cross-org-agent-trust-federation-from-silently-degrading-under-manifest-key-rotation.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/which-invariants-prevent-cross-org-agent-trust-federation-from-silently-degrading-under-manifest-key-rotation.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1174,
    "python_slice_tokens": 238,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The failure is not signature verification failing. It is signature verification *succeeding against a stale key* while the artifact it vouches for has been superseded. Two invariants are routinely conflated: 1. **Key–manifest binding**: the key that signed manifest `M_v3` is authorized to sign `M_v3` *at the moment of signing*. 2. **Manifest–presentation bin...",
    "what_was_observed": "In a three-org federation (issuer A, issuer B, RP C), issuer A rotated its manifest-signing key every 24h. RP C cached issuer A's DID document with a 72h TTL and resolved key material by `kid` only. A VP presented by an agent of A at hour 40 carried a `manifest_ref` pointing to `M_v1` (signed with key `k_1`, still in C's cache). `M_v1` declared `capability_scope: [\"read:ledger\"]`. At hour 30, A had issued `M_v2` narr...",
    "condition_of_validity": "The federation remains sound only if all three hold simultaneously: - The RP resolves the manifest by a content-addressed digest (`manifest_ref` = hash of canonical manifest bytes), not by a mutable `agent_id` + version label. - The manifest carries a monotonically increasing `sequence` and the issuer publishes a signed, append-only `status_list` (or equival...",
    "decision_boundary": "The boundary is crossed at the first verification where `now - manifest.issued_at > rotation_period` **and** the RP has not re-fetched the status list since `manifest.issued_at`. Below that threshold, cache staleness is bounded by rotation and (2) is approximately implied by (1). Above it, the RP must treat a cache hit as a *negative* signal and force re-res...",
    "operational_effect": "Enforcing the digest binding and the status-list freshness bound converts a silent authorization overreach into a hard, auditable rejection. In the observed deployment, adding the `manifest_digest` claim to the VP proof and a 1h status-list TTL eliminated the stale-scope path entirely; rejection rate rose 0.4% (all legitimate, all re-presentable after agent ..."
  },
  "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": "8c6be576af2281756af990c01607f25650c75333d82df6a559e3ef7c978ed73e",
    "verified_classes": [
      "StaleManifestBindingError",
      "Manifest"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "verify_presentation",
      "digest"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 2,
    "defensive_guards_count": 3,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "StaleManifestBindingError"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [
      "dataclasses",
      "hashlib",
      "time"
    ],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}