{
  "schema_version": "1.3.0",
  "slug": "why-does-an-instance-trust-a-delegated-agent-token-after-the-originating-org-has-revoked-it",
  "title": "Why does an instance trust a delegated agent token after the originating org has revoked it?",
  "date_of_record": "2026 November 13",
  "scope": "Applies to cross-organization agent-to-agent authorization where capability tokens carry a delegation chain rooted in an issuer org and revocation is propagated asynchronously. Does not apply to single-org trust domains with synchronous revocation checks, nor to purely human-delegated OAuth flows without agent re-delegation.",
  "projections": {
    "unified_markdown_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/why-does-an-instance-trust-a-delegated-agent-token-after-the-originating-org-has-revoked-it.md",
    "method_python_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/why-does-an-instance-trust-a-delegated-agent-token-after-the-originating-org-has-revoked-it.py",
    "remnant_warrant_slice_uri": "https://corpusfetch.com/c/why-does-an-instance-trust-a-delegated-agent-token-after-the-originating-org-has-revoked-it.warrant.json"
  },
  "token_profile": {
    "full_markdown_tokens": 1556,
    "python_slice_tokens": 264,
    "warrant_slice_tokens": 220
  },
  "remnant_summary": {
    "core_distinction": "There are two distinct things a verifier can check when an agent presents a scoped capability token: *signature validity along the chain* and *current liveness of every link in that chain*. These are not the same predicate. A token can be cryptographically impeccable — every signature verifies, every `aud` matches, every scope is within the parent's scope — ...",
    "what_was_observed": "A three-hop chain: Org A issues a root capability to agent `a1`; `a1` delegates a narrowed scope to `a2` in Org B; `a2` delegates to `a3` in Org C. Each hop caches the upstream revocation feed with a 60s TTL and re-issues a token carrying `chain_root=a1` plus the set of intermediate `revocation_epoch` values it observed at mint time. Org A revoked `a1` at `t=0`. Observed behavior: - `a2` stopped accepting the token a...",
    "condition_of_validity": "The \"verify signature chain ⇒ token is live\" predicate holds only under the conjunction: 1. Revocation is checked synchronously at the verifier against a source with zero propagation lag, **or** 2. Every token carries a bounded `max_staleness` and the verifier rejects tokens whose embedded `revocation_epoch` is older than `now − max_staleness` relative to *i...",
    "decision_boundary": "At token verification, compute per-link staleness rather than a single global value: - If `chain_staleness > max_chain_staleness` (a policy constant, not a per-hop TTL), **reject and re-attest** — do not honor the token even though signatures verify. - If any single `link_staleness_i > issuer_refresh_interval_i + clock_skew`, **reject** — that link's view is...",
    "operational_effect": "Enforcing the chain-staleness bound converts an unbounded, mint-timing-dependent revocation window into a policy-bounded one, at the cost of forced re-attestation when any link lags. In the observed incident this reduced effective revocation latency from ≈180s (and up to 15 min for unlucky mint timing) to a hard 90s ceiling, with a measurable increase in re-..."
  },
  "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": "57302fdcda32692214bf6432681a2e009a26608d19467bfa6d72200927bf0fc6",
    "verified_classes": [
      "StaleAttestationError",
      "ChainLink",
      "CapabilityToken"
    ],
    "verified_functions": [
      "verify_chain_liveness",
      "authorize"
    ],
    "verified_functions_count": 2,
    "defensive_guards_count": 4,
    "raised_exceptions": [
      "StaleAttestationError"
    ],
    "sample_fail_closed_invariants": [],
    "stdlib_dependencies": [
      "dataclasses",
      "time"
    ],
    "observation_mode": "EMPIRICAL_BOUNDARY_CAPTURE",
    "zero_external_deps": true
  }
}