Definition
The time a chain of delegations takes, measured from decision records rather than nominal per-hop promises. Hops that run in series compose additively, and the time a human has to act is the intervention window minus the latency the upstream hops have already consumed.
Composed latency is the quantity that kills the human-in-the-loop fiction: each hop can promise a fast review while the composition consumes the window a person would have needed. A chain whose composed latency leaves no measured human window cannot run unattended.
Scale: Systemic · Phases: Design, Deployment, Audit · Measurability: Fully measurable · Maturity: Core concept
Adjacent terms
References
- STD-09 Agent Chains · Standard
- MEC-07 Accountability latency tracker · Mechanism