arXiv AI

Facts Without Rules: Boundary Metadata Collapse in Multi-Agent LLM Handoffs

arXiv AI
3d ago

Public-Sharing Labels and Verbatim Field Egress in an MCP-to-A2A Agent Configuration: A Controlled Multi-Model Study

The study evaluates safety properties of a controlled MCP-to-A2A agent configuration by measuring verbatim field egress across ten record scenarios under three labeling conditions (CONFIDENTIAL, no header, PUBLIC – OK TO SHARE). Using four models repeated four times each, 480 trials were conducted, and the results show that adding a PUBLIC header is descriptively linked to higher verbatim egress, with the effect varying strongly by model. The study releases code, byte‑pinned traces, and an offline analysis pipeline as a public artifact.

By Arpan Kumar Mahapatra
arXiv AI
Aug 26

When "Must" Becomes "Maybe": Constraint Weakening in LLM Agent Workflows

Large language model agents coordinate tasks via multi‑role, multi‑stage workflows that transform upstream state into intermediate artifacts such as summaries and plans. The study shows that when these artifacts are transformed—through compression, plan assimilation, or other handoff methods—the strict action‑binding constraints on upstream state can be weakened, turning mandatory requirements into optional information. In 1,296 synthetic episodes, direct handoff preserved all safety blockers, whereas transformed handoffs frequently deactivated or forbidden actions, but restoring full state fields or applying downstream verification can recover preservation.

By Yiheng Sun, Huifei Wang, Yancheng Zhu, Zhenyu Li, Zebin Zhao, Yifan Yuan
arXiv AI
3d ago

The Memory Trust Gap: Capability-Dependent Failures in Persistent-Memory Agents

The paper investigates how persistent memory in AI agents can lead to over‑trust in stale facts, creating a "Memory Trust Gap" that worsens as model capability increases. Using a benchmark with Benefit and Safety suites across Qwen3 models of varying sizes, the authors show that larger models are more prone to harmful over‑trust, especially when metadata is absent or misleading. They also demonstrate that mitigation strategies such as exposing metadata or pre‑resolving conflicts improve accuracy, but the effectiveness depends on model size and dataset.

By Jundong Hu, Shekar Ramachandran