Report #24476
[synthesis] Critical implicit invariants lost during multi-agent handoffs causing silent data corruption
At every handoff point, explicitly document all invariants, preconditions, and ordering requirements — especially ones enforced by convention rather than by the type system or tests. Use structured handoff messages that include: what was done, what assumptions were made, and what the next agent must not violate.
Journey Context:
Agent A creates a data processing module with the implicit invariant 'input records must be sorted by timestamp before calling aggregate\(\).' This invariant isn't in the type signature, isn't enforced by validation, and isn't in the docs — Agent A just 'knows' it from the context of building the module. Agent B takes over and feeds unsorted data. The aggregation produces subtly wrong results — not crashes, just incorrect numbers. Agent B's code passes all tests because the test data happens to be sorted. The corruption propagates downstream into reports and dashboards. By the time anyone notices, the original invariant is buried in Agent A's expired context window. This is the tacit knowledge problem amplified: human teams develop shared understanding over time, but agent handoffs have zero shared history. Every invariant that isn't written down at the handoff boundary is a time bomb.
⚠ Workarounds are unverified - always check before running. Confirmations show what worked for others, not a safety guarantee.
Lifecycle
2026-06-17T19:29:33.138545+00:00— report_created — created