webcmd browser verify: validateRowShape() hardcodes a 12-column cap with no override, so it can never pass for wide-row adapters

[ngaurav]

What's wrong

webcmd-adapter-author's SKILL.md (Step 12 / Runbook) marks a passing webcmd browser verify fixture as required for every adapter, with no documented exception:

verify/<cmd>.json: required. Expected values for webcmd browser verify: args, rowCount, columns, types, patterns, notEmpty.

But validateRowShape() in @agentrhq/webcmd/dist/src/browser/verify-fixture.js:205 hardcodes:

const DEFAULT_MAX_TOP_LEVEL_KEYS = 12; // verify-fixture.js:33
const maxTopLevelKeys = opts.maxTopLevelKeys ?? DEFAULT_MAX_TOP_LEVEL_KEYS;

and the call site in cli.js:2715 invokes it with no options at all:

const shapeFailures = validateRowShape(rows);

There is no CLI flag to raise maxTopLevelKeys. Any adapter whose rows have more than 12 top-level keys cannot ever pass webcmd browser verify, regardless of how correct the adapter is.

Impact

This isn't a hypothetical edge case — it affects a whole adapter family already shipped in the marketplace. The university postgraduate-course-export adapters (cincinnati, yale, concordia, goettingen, heidelberg, hft, iit) all emit a 52-column row shape (by design — the output is meant to become a spreadsheet/CSV for a downstream team, not a narrow agent-queryable API). None of them ship a verify fixture, presumably because it's structurally impossible to satisfy.

A subagent building a new adapter in this family (Manchester) followed the skill literally, hit repeated verify failures, tried --write-fixture, and eventually had to read webcmd's own dist source to figure out why — before falling back to webcmd validate, which is the gate that actually applies to browser:false plugin-style adapters.

Suggested fix

One of:

• Add a --max-top-level-keys (or similar) override flag to webcmd browser verify, and have the skill tell agents when a wide row shape is legitimate (e.g. spreadsheet-export adapters) vs. a smell.
• Have the skill explicitly document the exception: for browser:false/export-style adapters with an intentionally wide row shape, webcmd validate <site> is the required gate, not webcmd browser verify.

Context

Found while a subagent built a new university-course-export adapter (Manchester) following webcmd-adapter-author end to end. Happy to share the full transcript excerpt if useful.