{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "which-invariants-prevent-silent-scope-widening-in-aaif-scoped-delegation-chains-for-federated-multi-agent-task-orchestration",
  "title": "Which invariants prevent silent scope widening in AAIF-scoped delegation chains for federated multi-agent task orchestration",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 13",
  "scope": "Applies to federated multi-agent orchestrations where a delegating agent (the *issuer*) grants an *audience* agent a capability token whose scope is expressed as an AAIF scope set (a set of `(action, resource-pattern, constraint)` triples) and where that audience may further delegate a subset of its authority. Does not apply to single-hop, non-delegable tokens, nor to systems where scope is enforced solely at the resource server without a delegation chain.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/which-invariants-prevent-silent-scope-widening-in-aaif-scoped-delegation-chains-for-federated-multi-agent-task-orchestration.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/which-invariants-prevent-silent-scope-widening-in-aaif-scoped-delegation-chains-for-federated-multi-agent-task-orchestration.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/which-invariants-prevent-silent-scope-widening-in-aaif-scoped-delegation-chains-for-federated-multi-agent-task-orchestration.warrant.json"
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  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The non-obvious boundary is between **scope intersection** (the correct semantic of delegation: a child's authority is the set-intersection of the parent's scope with the child's requested scope) and **scope union under pattern subsumption** (the failure mode: a child requests a scope whose resource pattern is a *superset* of the parent's pattern, and the en...",
    "what_was_observed": "In a three-tier federation (orchestrator → regional planner → worker pool), a regional planner issued a worker token for a batch job. The orchestrator's token to the planner was scoped to `write:region/eu-*/queue/batch`. The planner, implementing a retry path, re-delegated with scope `write:region/*/queue/batch` — a pattern that subsumes `eu-*` and additionally matches `us-*`, `ap-*`. The delegation service accepted ...",
    "condition_of_validity": "The subsumption invariant holds only under the following conditions, and silently degrades outside them: 1. **Pattern language is closed under intersection and decidable for subsumption.** Glob patterns with `*` are decidable for subsumption but the decision procedure is not string comparison. If scopes use regex or attribute-based predicates, subsumption ma...",
    "decision_boundary": "The operational decision rule for a delegation validator is: - **Accept** iff for every child triple there exists a parent triple with `action == action`, `pattern_subsumes(child_pattern, parent_pattern) == true`, and `constraint_implies(child_constraint, parent_constraint) == true`. - **Reject with a typed error** (not a generic 403) when subsumption fails,...",
    "operational_effect": "After switching the validator from `patterns_overlap` to `pattern_subsumes` and adding root-scope re-check with a narrowing witness, the observed effects were: - Delegation rejection rate rose from 0.3% to 4.1% of attempts, almost entirely widening attempts that had previously succeeded silently. The retry path in the regional planner was rewritten to delega..."
  },
  "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": "57c047844b26d3c9cd56064f60d32cc140dfd1237e804c09ffc3772a7f00d035",
    "verified_classes": [
      "ScopeWideningError"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "pattern_subsumes",
      "validate_delegation",
      "constraint_implies"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 3,
    "defensive_guards_count": 2,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "ScopeWideningError"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}