proposal_finalize still failing in 3.0.16: flat_rate fixture not respecting agent pricing capabilities

[MichielDean]

Problem

The proposal_finalize/accept_proposal storyboard was partially fixed in #5253 (hardcoded governance URL) but remains broken in 3.0.16 for agents that do not support flat_rate pricing.

The fixture creates a proposal with flat_rate pricing without first checking whether the agent under test declares support for it in get_adcp_capabilities or get_products. Agents that correctly reject unsupported pricing models with a VALIDATION_ERROR are counted as failures, not passes.

Affected storyboard

• media_buy_seller/proposal_finalize/accept_proposal

Observed behavior (3.0.16)

VALIDATION_ERROR: Adapter does not support 'flat_rate' pricing. Supported pricing models: CPM.
The requested pricing model ('flat_rate') is not available. Please choose a product with compatible pricing.

Expected behavior

The fixture should either:

1. Check get_adcp_capabilities (or get_products) for supported pricing models before constructing the proposal, and use a pricing model the agent actually supports, OR
2. Accept a VALIDATION_ERROR on unsupported pricing as a passing outcome for this step

This is consistent with the $context indirection pattern introduced in #5253 for the governance URL fix.

Suggested fix

In protocols/media-buy/proposal_finalize.yaml, replace the hardcoded flat_rate pricing in the fixture with a $context.pricing_model reference resolved from get_products at fixture time.

Versions affected

• 3.0.14 ✗
• 3.0.16 ✗ (this report)

Related

• Storyboard fixture: governance.pinnacle-agency.example is unreachable, blocking 4 Media Buy scenarios #5253 — same root cause (hardcoded governance URL)
• media_buy_state_machine still failing in 3.0.16: video_standard format fixture not respecting agent creative capabilities #5549 — same root cause (hardcoded video_standard format)

This is the third instance of the same pattern: storyboard fixtures hardcoding values without checking agent capabilities first.

[bokelley]

Triage

Thanks for filing!

Classification: needs-info
Bucket(s): compliance-suite
Status: clarify
Milestone: Evergreen (if confirmed)

What the experts said:

• ad-tech-protocol-expert: flat_rate is not hardcoded in proposal_finalize.yaml (current source and 3.0.16 dist both clean — accept_proposal/create_media_buy uses proposal_id mode with no packages or pricing_model); the only flat_rate in the 3.0.16 compliance bundle is in specialisms/sales-broadcast-tv/index.yaml (fixtures for unit_primetime_30 / unit_fringe_15).
• code-reviewer: proposal_finalize has no controller_seeding: true, so no fixture injection path from proposal_finalize itself; error pattern exactly matches running sales_broadcast_tv against a CPM-only adapter, or running a test session that merges broadcast-TV fixture state into the proposal_finalize run.

My take: The error you're seeing is real, but it doesn't originate in proposal_finalize.yaml — that file contains no flat_rate field and never sends pricing_model directly. The flat_rate fixture in 3.0.16 lives exclusively in sales-broadcast-tv/index.yaml. Before we can act, we need to confirm which storyboard was actually running when the failure occurred.

Three concrete questions:

1. What storyboard ID appears at the top of the runner output when the failure occurs? Is it media_buy_seller/proposal_finalize or sales_broadcast_tv? (The runner logs id: <storyboard_id> before each step.)
2. Which test kit is active during the failing run? acme-outdoor or nova-motors? The proposal_finalize scenario requires acme-outdoor; broadcast-TV requires nova-motors.
3. If it is proposal_finalize, can you share the runner log for the fixture-seeding step? Specifically, whether the runner emits any flat_rate pricing_option before the brief step runs — that would indicate a cross-storyboard state leak rather than a proposal_finalize-internal bug.

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Triaged by Claude Code. Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_015MU1RCcYqb2sK9xNj3A8Ms

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