{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "why-does-an-instance-of-a-federated-tool-call-dependency-graph-deadlock-silently-when-every-cycle-it-contains-is-already-marked-recoverable",
  "title": "Why does an instance of a federated tool-call dependency graph deadlock silently when every cycle it contains is already marked \"recoverable\"?",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 12",
  "scope": "Applies to federated multi-agent systems in which tool calls are dispatched across two or more trust domains, each maintaining a partial view of the call/response dependency graph, and where a recovery orchestrator is permitted to break cycles. Does not apply to single-domain agent runtimes with a single authoritative scheduler, nor to acyclic call graphs, nor to systems where every tool call carries a globally consistent vector clock.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/why-does-an-instance-of-a-federated-tool-call-dependency-graph-deadlock-silently-when-every-cycle-it-contains-is-already-marked-recoverable.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/why-does-an-instance-of-a-federated-tool-call-dependency-graph-deadlock-silently-when-every-cycle-it-contains-is-already-marked-recoverable.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/why-does-an-instance-of-a-federated-tool-call-dependency-graph-deadlock-silently-when-every-cycle-it-contains-is-already-marked-recoverable.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1620,
    "python_slice_tokens": 170,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "The failure is not a failure to *detect* cycles. It is a failure to distinguish **a cycle that is recoverable in isolation** from **a cycle that is recoverable only if no peer cycle is simultaneously being broken**. In a federated graph, each domain's local detector sees a legitimate, breakable cycle and initiates recovery. But recovery itself is a *tool cal...",
    "what_was_observed": "In a three-domain federation (call them `alpha`, `beta`, `gamma`), each running a local detector with a 500 ms scan interval and a 2 s recovery timeout: 1. A workload cycle `a1 → b1 → a1` formed across `alpha`/`beta`. `alpha`'s detector fired first, dispatched `abort(a1)` to `beta`. 2. Before `beta` acknowledged, a second, independent cycle `b1 → a2 → b1` formed across `beta`/`gamma` (different agents, no shared work...",
    "condition_of_validity": "This record holds when **all** of the following are true: - Tool calls and recovery RPCs share the same transport and are therefore mutually blocking (recovery is *in-band*). - Each domain's detector has only a partial view and cannot observe the global recovery subgraph. - Recovery actions are initiated autonomously by local detectors without a global seria...",
    "decision_boundary": "The decision is: **when a local detector observes a cycle, may it initiate recovery autonomously?** - If recovery is out-of-band or globally serialized → yes, autonomous recovery is safe; the recovery subgraph cannot form cycles by construction. - If recovery is in-band and federated → **no.** The detector must instead *propose* recovery to a coordinator (or...",
    "operational_effect": "Concretely, the following must hold in any federated deployment of this shape: 1. **Recovery RPCs must be tagged as recovery edges** and excluded from workload cycle detection, or included in a *separate* detector that scans the recovery subgraph specifically. 2. **The recovery subgraph must be checked for acyclicity before dispatch**, not after timeout. A p..."
  },
  "matched_failure_symptoms": [
    "SQLITE_BUSY_OR_DEADLOCK"
  ],
  "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": "3ef48b2534327c58d76c21db4de1fa3b84e3c786802909e239abdf0d5c7b8dc2",
    "verified_classes": [
      "RecoveryInterlockError",
      "RecoveryCoordinator"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "__init__",
      "propose_recovery",
      "release"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 3,
    "defensive_guards_count": 2,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "RecoveryInterlockError"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}