pending_creatives_to_start: storyboard sends unknown `brand` field at top level of sync_creatives — fails SDK pydantic pre-validation

[fgranata]

Summary

The pending_creatives_to_start/supply_creatives storyboard step sends a sync_creatives request with a top-level brand field that is not in the v3 SyncCreativesRequest schema. The @adcp/client SDK's pydantic validation layer rejects the request before it reaches the seller's handler, with Unrecognized key: "brand". The storyboard never reaches the creative-to-package assignment path.

Evidence

Error from seller logs:

Request validation failed for sync_creatives:
  Unrecognized key: "brand"

Schema reference (v3 sync-creatives-request.json):
Valid top-level properties: adcp_major_version, account, creatives, creative_ids, assignments, idempotency_key, delete_missing, dry_run, validation_mode, push_notification_config, context, ext. No brand field exists at the top level.

Expected Behavior

The storyboard should not send fields that are not in the published schema. brand should be removed from the sync_creatives payload in this storyboard step.

Impact

The pending_creatives_to_start storyboard cannot complete for any seller using the @adcp/client SDK with strict validation, because the SDK rejects the malformed payload before it reaches the handler.

Affected Files

-compliance/media-buy/pending_creatives_to_start.yaml — supply_creatives step
-schemas/v3/creative/sync-creatives-request.json — authoritative schema reference

Reported By

Seller agent implementer. Server-side creative assignment path is correctly implemented but unreachable due to this payload issue.

[bokelley]

Triage

Thanks for filing!

Classification: Conformance failure
Bucket(s): compliance suite, addie
Status: ready-for-human

What the experts said:

• ad-tech-protocol-expert: Storyboard YAML is correct — brand is a required field in create-media-buy-request.json (confirmed in the schema's required array) and must stay; the sync_creative step has no top-level brand. The pydantic rejection likely comes from the SDK model using extra='forbid', which is stricter than the schema's additionalProperties: true.
• code-reviewer: Source and dist artifacts are byte-for-byte identical (no stale dist). No other storyboard has brand in a sync_creatives step — not systemic. Most likely cause is the Addie storyboard runner bleeding sample_request fields from the prior create_buy_no_creatives step into the subsequent sync_creative request.

My take: Both experts agree the storyboard YAML at static/compliance/source/protocols/media-buy/scenarios/pending_creatives_to_start.yaml is correct and should not change. The bug is upstream: either the runner is merging step payloads (Addie server) or the SDK pydantic model is stricter than the schema (adcp-client-python). These are different repos and owners.

Option A — Fix runner step isolation (server/src/addie/member-context.ts or equivalent):

- const request = { ...accumulatedStepContext, ...step.sampleRequest }; // bleeds `brand`
+ const request = substituteContextVars(step.sampleRequest, contextOutputs); // isolated

Each step's sample_request is used in isolation; only explicit $context.* substitutions are applied from prior steps' context_outputs.

Option B — Fix SDK pydantic model config (adcp-client-python):

- model_config = ConfigDict(extra="forbid")  # rejects unknown keys → "Unrecognized key: brand"
+ model_config = ConfigDict(extra="ignore")  # honors schema's additionalProperties: true

Aligns pydantic runtime with the JSON Schema contract. Note: both fixes may be needed — the runner merges context AND the SDK is strict.

@bokelley, your call: route to runner (Option A, this repo) or SDK model config (Option B, adcp-client-python), or both?

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