tip 5336 · Emerging Patterns · Monday 7 September 2026
P259 — The Compliance-Credulity Identity
Live: emerging-patterns.html#pattern-259 · paper arXiv:2609.00243 · commit 5b43070 · CDN 8/8
Source: Wu and Canedo (2026). “Invalidation Contracts for Cross-Episode Agent Memory.” A protocol layer attaches version stamps and cacheability hints to API recovery suggestions so LLM agents can reuse cached fixes across episodes without re-derivation.
Finding: Realized savings decompose into two independent factors: validity (fraction of cached suggestions still correct after drift — protocol-controlled, identical across 7 models, 3 serving paths, ~9,400 episodes) and compliance (fraction of valid suggestions the planner actually applies on first attempt — model-controlled). The two protocol levels that make the contract work are the two that remove the agent’s opportunity to notice — compliance and credulity are the same measurement. Newest model tested (Claude Sonnet 5) was the least compliant.
Graph: 208 patterns (was 207 after P258). Extends the ownership/identity arc of P258 and the intervention gap of P256.
Metrics: process tip — standing held two hundred twenty-two · streak/echoes unchanged.