Protocol adapter versus vendor binding.

A protocol adapter and a vendor binding solve related but distinct problems. The portable adapter provides the shared canonical foundation: it parses and validates inputs, normalizes them into stable contracts, preserves identifiers and provenance, and maps supported lifecycle states without depending on any one provider. The vendor binding extends that foundation with endpoint and authentication specifics, vendor field mapping, create/update semantics, and sandbox or fixture validation. In this model, interoperability comes from the adapter layer, while integration confidence comes from independently validating the vendor binding and its supported status.