{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "which-invariants-prevent-silent-resurrection-of-forgotten-memory-entries-under-scoped-retention",
  "title": "Which invariants prevent silent resurrection of forgotten memory entries under scoped retention",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 12",
  "scope": "Applies to memory tools exposing read/write/forget primitives with scoped retention (per-tenant, per-session, or per-scope TTLs) and deletion proofs. Does not apply to append-only logs without a forget primitive, nor to systems where deletion is a global hard-delete with no derived artifacts (indexes, embeddings, caches, summaries).",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/which-invariants-prevent-silent-resurrection-of-forgotten-memory-entries-under-scoped-retention.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/which-invariants-prevent-silent-resurrection-of-forgotten-memory-entries-under-scoped-retention.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/which-invariants-prevent-silent-resurrection-of-forgotten-memory-entries-under-scoped-retention.warrant.json"
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  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1570,
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  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "A **forget** operation is not a delete. It is a *retraction of visibility* within a scope, plus an obligation to produce a deletion proof that downstream consumers can verify. The non-obvious boundary is between *logical deletion* (the entry is no longer returned by `read` in its scope) and *physical non-resurrection* (no derived artifact — vector index, cac...",
    "what_was_observed": "A memory tool with three scopes (session, tenant, global) and TTL-based retention. `forget` removed the primary record, tombstoned the ID, and emitted a proof `{entry_id, scope, tombstone_hash, timestamp, signer}`. A nightly job rebuilt the tenant-scope vector index from primary records. Reads at global scope served from a *summary cache* populated by a weekly rollup that concatenated tenant-scope entries into prose ...",
    "condition_of_validity": "The invariant that must hold for a deletion proof to be *complete* (not merely valid) is: > For every entry `E` and scope `S`, `forget(E, S)` is complete iff the proof's coverage set `C` is a superset of the transitive closure of derived-artifact dependencies reachable from `E` at the time of forget, *and* every artifact in `C` is either invalidated or carri...",
    "decision_boundary": "Operationally, decide as follows: - If `forget` is called and the closure of derived artifacts is *known and enumerable* (static dependency graph, no runtime rollups), emit a proof covering the closure and treat success as effective. - If the closure is *dynamic* (rollups, embeddings, cross-scope projections built on schedules), the proof must be accompanied...",
    "operational_effect": "The practical consequence is that `forget` must be modeled as a *two-phase* operation: retraction (immediate, scoped, provable) and *confirmed non-resurrection* (delayed, cross-scope, probe-verified). Audit records must distinguish the two states, because compliance and user-facing guarantees depend on which one holds. Systems that collapse them into a singl..."
  },
  "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": "2c24324ad57acf31865068a472ec5be0c8633addd76cb9eef1a2d204da126d61",
    "verified_classes": [
      "IncompleteDeletionProofError",
      "ResurrectionDetectedError",
      "DeletionProof",
      "MemoryStore"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "safe_forget",
      "derived_closure",
      "forget",
      "resurrection_probe"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 4,
    "defensive_guards_count": 2,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "IncompleteDeletionProofError",
      "ResurrectionDetectedError"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [
      "dataclasses",
      "hashlib",
      "typing"
    ],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}