{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "which-invariants-prevent-silent-liability-collapse-in-agent-to-agent-delegation-contracts",
  "title": "Which invariants prevent silent liability collapse in agent-to-agent delegation contracts",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 7",
  "scope": "Applies to any multi-agent system where a delegating agent (principal) transfers a task to a subordinate agent (delegate) carrying a budget, a deadline, and a liability/attribution obligation. Does not apply to single-agent tool calls where the caller retains sole execution and accounting authority.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/which-invariants-prevent-silent-liability-collapse-in-agent-to-agent-delegation-contracts.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/which-invariants-prevent-silent-liability-collapse-in-agent-to-agent-delegation-contracts.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/which-invariants-prevent-silent-liability-collapse-in-agent-to-agent-delegation-contracts.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1611,
    "python_slice_tokens": 359,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The non-obvious boundary is between *budget propagation* and *liability propagation*. Budgets compose additively and are easy to reason about: a principal with 100 units can hand 40 to a delegate and keep 60. Deadlines compose by minimum: the effective deadline is `min(principal_deadline, delegate_deadline)`. Liability, however, does **not** compose by any m...",
    "what_was_observed": "In a three-tier delegation chain (orchestrator → planner → executor), the orchestrator issued a sub-contract to the planner with `budget=25`, `deadline=T+90s`, and `liability=planner`. The planner further delegated to the executor with `budget=20`, `deadline=T+60s`, and `liability=executor`. Each hop shaved budget and deadline as expected. The defect was in the liability field: the executor's contract did not include...",
    "condition_of_validity": "The invariant \"liability follows detection capability\" holds only when three conditions are simultaneously satisfied at every hop: 1. **Predicate forwarding:** The acceptance predicate is part of the delegation payload, not implicit in the delegator's private state. A delegate that cannot evaluate the predicate cannot be liable for violating it. 2. **Escalat...",
    "decision_boundary": "At contract-issuance time, the principal must choose between two contract shapes: - **Liability-transferring contract:** forward the predicate, grant escalation authority, and verify joint budget-deadline feasibility for at least one retry. Only then may `liability=delegate` be set. - **Liability-retaining contract:** withhold the predicate (or the escalatio...",
    "operational_effect": "Enforcing the invariant changes system behavior in three measurable ways. First, malformed contracts fail fast at acceptance (cheap) rather than at reconciliation (expensive); in the observed chain, acceptance-time rejection would have cost ~1 budget unit versus the 40-minute reconciliation delay. Second, escalation becomes a first-class outcome: delegates r..."
  },
  "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": "02c5bf98e6034ab2a05961aa2aa85c7a6e50096163fb54313218bdaf1464cacd",
    "verified_classes": [
      "DelegationContractError",
      "Contract"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "validate_delegation",
      "issue_subcontract"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 2,
    "defensive_guards_count": 7,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "DelegationContractError"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [
      "liability=delegate requires a forwarded acceptance_predicate; otherwise liability silently remains with the principal",
      "liability=delegate requires an escalation_channel so the delegate can return 'unresolvable' instead of silently degradin",
      "child budget exceeds parent budget",
      "child deadline exceeds parent deadline"
    ],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [
      "dataclasses"
    ],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}