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WEB / WEB-20.04

Third-party services and trust boundaries

Trace a provider response through local purpose, validation, and persistence gates.

CORE · RED · BLUE · ARTIFACT · PRACTICE

1. Core · Mechanism

Read every scenario without motion

Validated commit

  1. Request prepared

    The adapter prepares the fixed public tea query; the provider has not received it and the local catalog is unchanged.

    Application caller
    Public enrichment pending
    Integration adapter
    Public tea query prepared
    Provider projection
    Provider request unknown
    Local catalog owner
    Local draft committed
  2. Provider arrival

    The conceptual public query becomes known at provider arrival; the adapter knows no response or validation result yet.

    Application caller
    Public enrichment pending
    Integration adapter
    Public tea query prepared
    Provider projection
    Public tea query received
    Local catalog owner
    Local draft committed
  3. Response prepared

    The supplied provider fixture prepares its response; ordinary schema drift or error status is declared here, not observed from a real SaaS runtime.

    Application caller
    Public enrichment pending
    Integration adapter
    Public tea query prepared
    Provider projection
    200 string title prepared
    Local catalog owner
    Local draft committed
  4. Adapter arrival

    The raw response reaches the adapter; schema acceptance and local mutation have not happened and the catalog retains its prior state.

    Application caller
    Public enrichment pending
    Integration adapter
    Raw200 bytes received
    Provider projection
    200 string title prepared
    Local catalog owner
    Local draft committed
  5. Gate decision

    The local status/schema gate evaluates the intended public id and string-title contract; the decision is not a wire message.

    Application caller
    Public enrichment pending
    Integration adapter
    Contract accepted
    Provider projection
    200 string title prepared
    Local catalog owner
    Local draft committed
  6. Local write

    The accepted title is pending in an own SQLite transaction; the independent reader still sees Local draft.

    Application caller
    Public enrichment pending
    Integration adapter
    Contract accepted
    Provider projection
    200 string title prepared
    Local catalog owner
    Tea note pending commit
  7. Commit visible

    After COMMIT an independent connection reads Tea note; observed local persistence does not expand provider authority.

    Application caller
    Enrichment committed
    Integration adapter
    Contract accepted
    Provider projection
    200 string title prepared
    Local catalog owner
    Tea note committed

Schema drift

  1. Request prepared

    The adapter prepares the fixed public tea query; the provider has not received it and the local catalog is unchanged.

    Application caller
    Public enrichment pending
    Integration adapter
    Public tea query prepared
    Provider projection
    Provider request unknown
    Local catalog owner
    Local draft committed
  2. Provider arrival

    The conceptual public query becomes known at provider arrival; the adapter knows no response or validation result yet.

    Application caller
    Public enrichment pending
    Integration adapter
    Public tea query prepared
    Provider projection
    Public tea query received
    Local catalog owner
    Local draft committed
  3. Response prepared

    The supplied provider fixture prepares its response; ordinary schema drift or error status is declared here, not observed from a real SaaS runtime.

    Application caller
    Public enrichment pending
    Integration adapter
    Public tea query prepared
    Provider projection
    200 numeric title prepared
    Local catalog owner
    Local draft committed
  4. Adapter arrival

    The raw response reaches the adapter; schema acceptance and local mutation have not happened and the catalog retains its prior state.

    Application caller
    Public enrichment pending
    Integration adapter
    Raw200 bytes received
    Provider projection
    200 numeric title prepared
    Local catalog owner
    Local draft committed
  5. Gate decision

    The local status/schema gate evaluates the intended public id and string-title contract; the decision is not a wire message.

    Application caller
    Public enrichment pending
    Integration adapter
    Contract mismatch
    Provider projection
    200 numeric title prepared
    Local catalog owner
    Local draft committed
  6. Preserve result boundary

    The selected error category becomes caller state; local catalog commit count stays0 and Local draft remains.

    Application caller
    Error; no new success
    Integration adapter
    Contract mismatch
    Provider projection
    200 numeric title prepared
    Local catalog owner
    Local draft committed

Provider error

  1. Request prepared

    The adapter prepares the fixed public tea query; the provider has not received it and the local catalog is unchanged.

    Application caller
    Public enrichment pending
    Integration adapter
    Public tea query prepared
    Provider projection
    Provider request unknown
    Local catalog owner
    Local draft committed
  2. Provider arrival

    The conceptual public query becomes known at provider arrival; the adapter knows no response or validation result yet.

    Application caller
    Public enrichment pending
    Integration adapter
    Public tea query prepared
    Provider projection
    Public tea query received
    Local catalog owner
    Local draft committed
  3. Response prepared

    The supplied provider fixture prepares its response; ordinary schema drift or error status is declared here, not observed from a real SaaS runtime.

    Application caller
    Public enrichment pending
    Integration adapter
    Public tea query prepared
    Provider projection
    503 error prepared
    Local catalog owner
    Local draft committed
  4. Adapter arrival

    The raw response reaches the adapter; schema acceptance and local mutation have not happened and the catalog retains its prior state.

    Application caller
    Public enrichment pending
    Integration adapter
    Raw503 bytes received
    Provider projection
    503 error prepared
    Local catalog owner
    Local draft committed
  5. Gate decision

    The local status/schema gate evaluates the intended public id and string-title contract; the decision is not a wire message.

    Application caller
    Public enrichment pending
    Integration adapter
    Provider unavailable
    Provider projection
    503 error prepared
    Local catalog owner
    Local draft committed
  6. Preserve result boundary

    The selected error category becomes caller state; local catalog commit count stays0 and Local draft remains.

    Application caller
    Error; no new success
    Integration adapter
    Provider unavailable
    Provider projection
    503 error prepared
    Local catalog owner
    Local draft committed

Response unknown

  1. Input prepared

    The fixed local unknown-outcome case starts; no real network send or provider delivery is observed.

    Application caller
    Public enrichment pending
    Integration adapter
    Public tea query prepared
    Provider projection
    Provider result unknown
    Local catalog owner
    Local draft committed
  2. Adapter attempt

    The direct adapter enters the supplied TimeoutError fixture; it obtains no new information about remote completion.

    Application caller
    Public enrichment pending
    Integration adapter
    Local call attempted
    Provider projection
    Provider result unknown
    Local catalog owner
    Local draft committed
  3. No response

    The injected exception leaves the adapter without a status or body observation; it is not a real deadline measurement.

    Application caller
    Public enrichment pending
    Integration adapter
    No response observed
    Provider projection
    Provider result unknown
    Local catalog owner
    Local draft committed
  4. Keep unknown distinct

    An unknown response is not converted into provider503 or schema mismatch; no automatic retry or local mutation occurs.

    Application caller
    Public enrichment pending
    Integration adapter
    response-unknown
    Provider projection
    Provider result unknown
    Local catalog owner
    Local draft committed
  5. Caller knowledge

    The caller observes the selected unknown result; Local draft stays unchanged and provider completion is not asserted.

    Application caller
    Unknown; no new success
    Integration adapter
    response-unknown
    Provider projection
    Provider result unknown
    Local catalog owner
    Local draft committed

ACTORS · STATE · DATA FLOW

Provider contract, local purpose, and ownership

A third-party service supplies an externally managed capability through an API, webhook, library, or browser integration. A SaaS dependency also binds operation, changes, availability, quotas, and retention to the provider contract. A provider name or a successful demo is not evidence of suitability for every application purpose. Record what data leaves, what result returns, and who treats that result as authoritative.

The example sends only the public tea identifier under a fixed catalog-v1 contract associated with the inert catalog-demo alias. catalog.example.invalid is not a real target and the native fixture opens no network. The integration adapter checks status, media type, JSON shape, and expected identifier before touching the local catalog. The provider can supply a title; it receives no authority over private user permissions or account state. This purpose boundary remains distinct from authentication and TLS channel trust.

A SaaS contract version may depend on account defaults, an SDK, or endpoint configuration, with product-specific selection rules. Stripe versioning is a named source example, not a payment API used by this fixture. catalog-v1 is an own teaching-contract alias. Object revision1 differs from API version. If the UI expects a string title but ordinary provider drift returns title7, successful transport still has not delivered a usable application representation.

Arrival, validation, and commit are three distinct events

HTTP status and a provider error body belong to a contract; receiving an external response does not mean a local mutation happened. An adapter can parse a 200 application/json result before checking types, the intended object, or its purpose. The normal branch accepts idtea, titleTea note, and integer revision1, then uses a parameter-bound SQLite write and COMMIT. An independent connection reads the committed title afterward. Provider arrival, validation, and local commit have distinct scene snapshots.

Ordinary schema drift retains 200 but number7 in the title field fails the string gate. The provider-error branch receives 503 with a temporary error and maps it to an own unavailable result without applying the success schema. This mapping is not every vendor error contract. The client does not receive raw upstream diagnostics, stack traces, credentials, or response dumps. Retaining the local Local draft title does not establish a fresh provider result.

The unknown-response branch injects a TimeoutError in the selected local fixture; no network deadline is measured. Since the adapter sees no response, it invents neither a status nor provider completion. A remote side effect with an unknown outcome needs safe retry and idempotency design. This fixture uses only a public read and does not automatically retry. The commit versus caller-knowledge distinction from WEB-19.S01 underlies this boundary. Refusing to turn missing evidence into success is an application decision.

2. Red · Trust & Impact

Read every scenario without motion

200, wrong type

  1. The contract is defined first

    The requested public id is tea; title must be a string and revision an integer. The contract requires more than status=200.

    Provider record
    request.id=tea
    Contract / local state
    title:string / revision:integer
    Trust boundary
    Acceptance decision pending
  2. A body arrived with 200

    SchemaDrift.status=200 arrived, but title=7 in the body does not satisfy the string requirement.

    Provider record
    status=200 / body.title=7
    Contract / local state
    Contract not evaluated yet
    Trust boundary
    Transport outcome and type differ
  3. The schema gate rejected the body

    Accepted=false and reason=contract-mismatch show that HTTP success did not make the representation acceptable to this application.

    Provider record
    status=200 / body.title=7
    Contract / local state
    accepted=false / reason=contract-mismatch
    Trust boundary
    Local effect not inspected yet
  4. The local note did not change

    LocalAfter=Local draft and commits=0 show no note mutation from the incompatible provider response in this branch.

    Provider record
    status=200 / body.title=7
    Contract / local state
    localAfter=Local draft / commits=0
    Trust boundary
    Provider 200 != local COMMIT
  5. Extra fields are not authority

    The contract does not persist unused extra fields. Additional response fields do not grant application permission or private-user authority.

    Provider record
    status=200 / body.title=7
    Contract / local state
    unusedExtraFields=ignored, not persisted
    Trust boundary
    providerCanAuthorizePrivateUser=false
  6. Name the failing layer correctly

    This branch stops at schema acceptance rather than HTTP delivery. Report status, acceptance and mutation separately instead of renaming 200 as local success.

    Provider record
    status=200 / body.title=7
    Contract / local state
    accepted=false / localAfter=Local draft / commits=0
    Trust boundary
    Schema rejection

Accept and commit

  1. The normal body matches the contract

    The normal body contains tea, Tea note and revision=1. The requested id and types match this selected contract.

    Provider record
    status=200 / title=Tea note / revision=1
    Contract / local state
    Local contract decision pending
    Trust boundary
    Local commit not inspected yet
  2. The representation was accepted

    Accepted=true records acceptance of the provider body for local processing. It alone does not establish a completed transaction.

    Provider record
    status=200 / title=Tea note / revision=1
    Contract / local state
    accepted=true / localBefore=Local draft
    Trust boundary
    Acceptance != commit
  3. An independent read during the transaction

    IndependentReaderDuring=Local draft shows that beginning local processing is not the same as a separate reader seeing the new title.

    Provider record
    status=200 / title=Tea note / revision=1
    Contract / local state
    accepted=true / independentReaderDuring=Local draft
    Trust boundary
    The old committed value is visible
  4. The commit result is separately recorded

    Commits=1 and localAfter=Tea note establish a separate local transaction outcome after provider receipt.

    Provider record
    status=200 / title=Tea note / revision=1
    Contract / local state
    commits=1 / localAfter=Tea note
    Trust boundary
    Local state changed
  5. The later reader saw the new title

    IndependentReaderAfter=Tea note separately establishes visibility of the committed title to another connection. It does not change the earlier read retroactively.

    Provider record
    status=200 / title=Tea note / revision=1
    Contract / local state
    commits=1 / independentReaderAfter=Tea note
    Trust boundary
    During=Local draft; after=Tea note
  6. Authority boundary of public enrichment

    Even a successful title-enrichment commit does not let the provider authorize a private user. Public data contracts and access-control authority are separate responsibilities.

    Provider record
    status=200 / title=Tea note / revision=1
    Contract / local state
    commits=1 / localAfter=Tea note
    Trust boundary
    providerCanAuthorizePrivateUser=false

ASSUMPTION · BOUNDARY · CONTROL

A trusted channel is not unlimited trust in data

TLS trust supports peer identity and transit integrity; it does not establish that a title has the correct type, intended note, or local purpose. Removing the input gate because a SaaS provider is well known allows even ordinary version drift to break storage or UI invariants. This perspective connects condition, impact, and control: a numeric title fails the string contract before mutation. No vulnerable parser or exploit example is constructed.

Promoting external capability into local authority is a separate boundary error. A public-title provider has no contract to decide user roles or private-object authorization. The fixed request carries only a public id, with no credentials or personal data. Real integration review considers minimization, provider identity, and allowed purposes together. Provider-owned account configuration and retention are not assumed to be application-owned.

Reading errors and unknown outcomes as success

Using status200 as schema validation differs from treating a provider-error body as a success body. An unknown response is neither: there is no status to classify. Each can leave the prior catalog title unchanged, but the reasons remain distinct. Diagnostic categories can differ even when a UI message is shared. The control binds contract mismatch, provider unavailability, and missing observation to a mutation gate without conflating them.

Passing raw provider errors to end users can expose internal topology or sensitive fields, and unnecessary body retention creates another exposure. Native records keep only the selected reason, local title, and commit count. No automatic redirects or arbitrary endpoint choices are demonstrated. Resource and time budgets are defensive source guidance; finite bytes and an injected unknown result do not prove actual timeout enforcement or production robustness.

3. Blue · Secure development & defense

Read every scenario without motion

Observed 503

  1. A response is known to exist

    A fixed local provider adapter supplies status/body observations; an independent SQLite connection supplies commit visibility. These are not logs or network captures proving a remote provider ran. ProviderError records status=503 and an error=temporary body. This branch describes an observed error response rather than no response.

    Provider observation
    status=503 / body.error=temporary
    Local record
    Local state not inspected yet
    Outcome knowledge
    Provider response observed
  2. The local contract did not accept it

    Accepted=false and provider-unavailable reject use of the error body as a successful public-note representation.

    Provider observation
    status=503 / body.error=temporary
    Local record
    accepted=false / reason=provider-unavailable
    Outcome knowledge
    Mutation not inspected yet
  3. There is no local commit

    Commits=0 and localAfter=Local draft record no commit in this branch; the provider error is not a failed committed transaction.

    Provider observation
    status=503 / body.error=temporary
    Local record
    localAfter=Local draft / commits=0
    Outcome knowledge
    The local note was preserved
  4. Diagnostics are separately bounded

    RawDiagnosticsExposed=false records that raw provider diagnostics were not exposed to the user. Recording status does not require sharing the raw message.

    Provider observation
    status=503 / body.error=temporary
    Local record
    localAfter=Local draft / commits=0
    Outcome knowledge
    rawDiagnosticsExposed=false
  5. Keep the 503 within its observed scope

    This response is the provider error outcome for the selected request. It does not establish other operations’ state or lasting unavailability.

    Provider observation
    status=503 / body.error=temporary
    Local record
    localAfter=Local draft / commits=0
    Outcome knowledge
    Other request outcomes are unknown
  6. Record the separate outcomes together

    Record the observed 503, rejected representation and zero local commits together. Do not replace this known response with the uncertainty of the no-response branch.

    Provider observation
    status=503 / body.error=temporary
    Local record
    accepted=false / localAfter=Local draft / commits=0
    Outcome knowledge
    Known error response

Unknown response

  1. No response was observed

    A fixed local provider adapter supplies status/body observations; an independent SQLite connection supplies commit visibility. These are not logs or network captures proving a remote provider ran. Unknown.responseObserved=false and status=null provide neither 503 nor 200. Do not fill status from another branch.

    Provider observation
    responseObserved=false / status=null
    Local record
    Local state not inspected yet
    Outcome knowledge
    Response outcome unknown
  2. Local state stayed unchanged

    LocalAfter=Local draft and commits=0 establish the local owner outcome. They do not show that the provider never ran.

    Provider observation
    responseObserved=false / status=null
    Local record
    localAfter=Local draft / commits=0
    Outcome knowledge
    Provider completion is separate
  3. Provider completion is unknown

    ProviderCompletionKnown=false separates caller response absence from the claim that the provider did no work.

    Provider observation
    responseObserved=false / status=null
    Local record
    localAfter=Local draft / commits=0
    Outcome knowledge
    providerCompletionKnown=false
  4. A deadline was not measured

    TimeoutActuallyMeasured=false records no real network timing measurement. Do not rename status=null as a measured timeout.

    Provider observation
    responseObserved=false / status=null
    Local record
    localAfter=Local draft / commits=0
    Outcome knowledge
    timeoutActuallyMeasured=false
  5. No automatic retry is produced

    AutomaticRetry=false is supplied. Unknown provider completion does not establish retry safety; that decision needs contract and effect evidence.

    Provider observation
    responseObserved=false / status=null
    Local record
    localAfter=Local draft / commits=0
    Outcome knowledge
    providerCompletionKnown=false / automaticRetry=false
  6. Preserve the UNKNOWN outcome

    Report the unchanged local note alongside unknown provider completion. Substituting one for the other assigns the wrong failure boundary.

    Provider observation
    responseObserved=false / status=null
    Local record
    localAfter=Local draft / commits=0
    Outcome knowledge
    provider completion=UNKNOWN

IMPLEMENTATION · SECURITY CONTROL · VERIFICATION

Put the integration contract in a boundary ledger

A fixed local provider adapter supplies status/body observations; an independent SQLite connection supplies commit visibility. These are not logs or network captures proving a remote provider ran. Record provider identity alias, intended capability, data classification, expected status and media type, schema version, and local authority together. When a contract changes, review ordinary schema drift and provider errors as well as success fixtures. The strict gate checks requested-id equality, a string title, and an integer revision; unused extra fields are not consumed. This selected policy is not a universal JSON-schema standard and does not automatically sanitize a title for every output context.

If a normal result is persisted locally, observe validation separately from authoritative storage. During the own SQLite transaction an independent reader sees the old title, then Tea note after COMMIT. Invalid responses retain commit count0. This evidence checks a local database relation, not provider delivery, a real handler deadline, or distributed commit. Native expectations are fixed independently rather than loaded from the artifact.

Connect response categories to user effects

Do not present success for contract mismatch, map unavailability to a selected application error, and do not assert remote completion for an unknown outcome. If an old local title exists, retain provenance and freshness information; explicitly describe any chosen stale fallback. This fixture neither presents stale data as new success nor retries an external write. A generic user error can coexist with a distinct internal category without copying an entire provider object into logs or the browser.

The selector looks for the inconsistent combination accepted=false and localCommitted=true. The rejected ledger yields count=0 and the inconsistent positive fixture count=1; missing events remain insufficient evidence. Do not record schema acceptance before response arrival or commit before the local transaction completes. Keep provider status, contract acceptance and local mutation separate for the same request.

NOW APPLY IT TO THE CASE

Are HTTP 200, schema acceptance and local COMMIT the same success?

Atlas enriches its public tea-note title from catalog-demo. The response is evaluated against the contract before the local note changes through its own transaction.

Which components contribute to the case response? Show where UI, service, platform and external-provider outcomes complete along their respective hops.

Open the related case file ↗

READ THE EXAMPLE TOGETHER

Provider response / local commit ledger

Select a field and examine what it supports and where the evidence ends.

Read the raw artifact and field explanations
{
  "contract": {
    "providerAlias": "catalog-demo",
    "endpointAlias": "https://catalog.example.invalid",
    "apiVersionAlias": "catalog-v1",
    "purpose": "public-title enrichment",
    "request": {
      "id": "tea"
    },
    "dataClassification": "public synthetic only",
    "successStatus": 200,
    "mediaType": "application/json",
    "schema": {
      "id": "requested public id",
      "title": "string",
      "revision": "integer, not boolean"
    },
    "unusedExtraFields": "ignored, not persisted",
    "providerCanAuthorizePrivateUser": false
  },
  "normal": {
    "status": 200,
    "body": "{\"id\":\"tea\",\"title\":\"Tea note\",\"revision\":1}",
    "accepted": true,
    "localBefore": "Local draft",
    "localAfter": "Tea note",
    "commits": 1,
    "independentReaderDuring": "Local draft",
    "independentReaderAfter": "Tea note"
  },
  "schemaDrift": {
    "status": 200,
    "body": "{\"id\":\"tea\",\"title\":7,\"revision\":1}",
    "accepted": false,
    "reason": "contract-mismatch",
    "localAfter": "Local draft",
    "commits": 0
  },
  "providerError": {
    "status": 503,
    "body": "{\"error\":\"temporary\"}",
    "accepted": false,
    "reason": "provider-unavailable",
    "localAfter": "Local draft",
    "commits": 0,
    "rawDiagnosticsExposed": false
  },
  "unknown": {
    "responseObserved": false,
    "status": null,
    "reason": "response-unknown",
    "accepted": false,
    "localAfter": "Local draft",
    "commits": 0,
    "providerCompletionKnown": false,
    "automaticRetry": false,
    "timeoutActuallyMeasured": false
  },
  "limits": {
    "native": "fixed direct adapter + own SQLite + independent response/schema parsing",
    "realThirdPartyApiExecuted": false,
    "browserExecuted": false,
    "realTlsVerified": false,
    "networkDeadlineMeasured": false
  },
  "selector": {
    "language": "XPath",
    "xml": "<audit><integration accepted=\"false\" localCommitted=\"false\"/></audit>",
    "xpath": "count(/audit/integration[@accepted='false' and @localCommitted='true'])",
    "expected": 0,
    "positiveFixtureXml": "<audit><integration accepted=\"false\" localCommitted=\"true\"/></audit>",
    "positiveExpected": 1,
    "scope": "Authored inert decision ledger only; these are teaching fields, not product log or API field names.",
    "missingFieldBehavior": "A missing observation is insufficient evidence; zero matches alone proves no runtime control."
  }
}
contract
Own public capability scope, contract version, and private-authority boundary.
normal/schemaDrift
Response arrival, type gate, and committed local effect differ.
providerError/unknown
Observed status errors and no-response knowledge have different categories.
selector/limits
Local evidence gate; no SaaS, network, browser, or measured deadline.

Actual direct fixed adapter and own SQLite only. Provider messages are conceptual; no external call, TLS check, actual network timeout, or browser run.

Two reality checks

A well-known SaaS and HTTP200 make local data trustworthy.

Peer/channel, expected schema, object/purpose, and local authority require separate gates.

No response provides the same knowledge as provider503 and can default to success.

An unknown outcome has no observed status; completion is not invented and selected local state is preserved.

YOUR TURN

Work through this story.

Predict the outcome, find the evidence boundary, and explain it in your own words.

The provider returned 200 but title is 7. Is selected local persistence updated?

  1. Yes; a trusted provider 200 makes every body field business-valid.
  2. No; contract-mismatch and commits=0.
Read the explained answer

No; contract-mismatch and commits=0. — Required title is not a string, so accepted=false; the local draft stays unchanged.

The response was not observed. Does this evidence justify retry by assuming the provider operation never completed?

Selected lesson artifact fields; teaching example

unknown
{"responseObserved":false,"status":null,"reason":"response-unknown","accepted":false,"localAfter":"Local draft","commits":0,"providerCompletionKnown":false,"automaticRetry":false,"timeoutActuallyMeasured":false}
  1. No; providerCompletionKnown=false and automaticRetry=false.
  2. Yes; every timeout or missing response guarantees no effects.
Read the explained answer

No; providerCompletionKnown=false and automaticRetry=false. — Response loss does not reveal remote completion state; replay-safe operation policy is separately required.

The provider is selected for public-title enrichment. Why can it determine neither private-user authorization nor raw-diagnostic disclosure?

Read the explained answer

ProviderCanAuthorizePrivateUser=false; the local application enforces its own trusted subject/object policy. A selected provider error maps to unavailable with rawDiagnosticsExposed=false. Fixed direct-adapter/SQLite evidence is not a real third-party API/TLS/browser measurement; unused extra fields are not persisted.

□ I did not count external data as private-identity authority.

□ I separated mapped product errors from raw diagnostics.

Open the application console · request / response / browser
Also open request, URL, cookie and DOM examples

Sources and scope