From 603986d8bf790b425bd76415422692d784293c56 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Kara Woo <kara.woo@posit.co>
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2026 10:11:22 -0800
Subject: [PATCH 1/4] improve performance of parse_connectapi_typed

---
 R/parse.R | 78 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------------
 1 file changed, 51 insertions(+), 27 deletions(-)

diff --git a/R/parse.R b/R/parse.R
index c917f2da..2e141d37 100644
--- a/R/parse.R
+++ b/R/parse.R
@@ -47,13 +47,12 @@ ensure_columns <- function(.data, ptype, strict = FALSE) {
 ensure_column <- function(data, default, name) {
   stopifnot(length(default) == 1)
   col <- data[[name]]
-  scoped_experimental_silence()
   if (rlang::is_null(col)) {
     col <- vctrs::vec_rep(default, nrow(data))
     col <- vctrs::vec_cast(col, default)
   } else {
     if (
-      vctrs::vec_is(default, NA_datetime_) && !vctrs::vec_is(col, NA_datetime_)
+      inherits(default, "POSIXct") && !inherits(col, "POSIXct")
     ) {
       # manual fix because vctrs::vec_cast cannot cast double -> datetime or char -> datetime
       col <- coerce_datetime(col, default, name = name)
@@ -89,19 +88,31 @@ parse_connectapi_typed <- function(data, ptype, strict = FALSE) {
 parse_connectapi <- function(data) {
   if (length(data) == 0) return(tibble::tibble())
 
-  all_names <- unique(unlist(lapply(data, names)))
-  cols <- stats::setNames(lapply(all_names, function(nm) {
-    # NULL / missing fields become NA; unlist() will coerce to the right type
-    values <- lapply(data, function(row) row[[nm]] %||% NA)
-    if (any(vapply(values, function(v) is.list(v) || length(v) > 1, logical(1)))) {
-      # List column: wrap scalars so every element is a list
+  all_names <- unique(unlist(lapply(data, names), use.names = FALSE))
+  n <- length(data)
+
+  cols <- lapply(all_names, function(nm) {
+    # .subset2 is the internal no-dispatch version of `[[`
+    values <- lapply(data, .subset2, nm)
+    nulls <- vapply(values, is.null, logical(1))
+
+    # Determine column type from first non-NULL value
+    is_list_col <- FALSE
+    if (!all(nulls)) {
+      first_val <- values[[which.min(nulls)]]
+      is_list_col <- is.list(first_val) || length(first_val) > 1L
+    }
+
+    values[nulls] <- list(NA)
+
+    if (is_list_col) {
       lapply(values, function(v) if (is.list(v)) v else list(v))
     } else {
-      # Scalar column: simplify to a vector
-      unlist(values)
+      unlist(values, use.names = FALSE)
     }
-  }), all_names)
-  tibble::as_tibble(cols)
+  })
+  names(cols) <- all_names
+  tibble::new_tibble(cols, nrow = n)
 }
 
 coerce_fsbytes <- function(x, to, ...) {
@@ -157,21 +168,34 @@ coerce_datetime <- function(x, to, ...) {
 # - "2020-01-01T00:02:03-01:00"
 # nolint end
 parse_connect_rfc3339 <- function(x) {
-  # Convert timestamps with offsets to a format recognized by `strptime`.
-  x <- gsub("([+-]\\d\\d):(\\d\\d)$", "\\1\\2", x)
-  x <- gsub("Z$", "+0000", x)
-
-  # Parse with an inner call to `strptime()`, which returns a POSIXlt object,
-  # and convert that to `POSIXct`.
-  #
-  # We must specify `tz` in the inner call to correctly compute date math.
-  # Specifying `tz` when in the outer call just changes the time zone without
-  # doing any date math!
-  #
-  # > xlt [1] "2024-08-29 16:36:33 EDT" tzone(xlt) [1] "America/New_York"
-  # as.POSIXct(xlt, tz = "UTC") [1] "2024-08-29 16:36:33 UTC"
-  format_string <- "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%OS%z"
-  as.POSIXct(x, format = format_string, tz = Sys.timezone())
+  if (length(x) == 0) return(.POSIXct(double(), tz = Sys.timezone()))
+
+  # The date portion is always at fixed positions: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS
+  dates <- as.Date(substr(x, 1, 10))
+  hour <- as.integer(substr(x, 12, 13))
+  min <- as.integer(substr(x, 15, 16))
+
+  # Seconds (with optional fractional part) run from position 18 to just before
+  # the timezone suffix. The suffix is either "Z" (1 char) or "+HH:MM" (6 chars).
+  nc <- nchar(x)
+  is_utc <- endsWith(x, "Z")
+  tz_len <- ifelse(is_utc, 1L, 6L)
+  sec <- as.double(substr(x, 18, nc - tz_len))
+
+  # Compute timezone offset in seconds for non-UTC timestamps
+  tz_offset <- rep(0, length(x))
+  non_utc <- which(!is_utc)
+  if (length(non_utc) > 0) {
+    tz_str <- substr(x[non_utc], nc[non_utc] - 5, nc[non_utc])
+    tz_sign <- ifelse(substr(tz_str, 1, 1) == "+", 1, -1)
+    tz_h <- as.integer(substr(tz_str, 2, 3))
+    tz_m <- as.integer(substr(tz_str, 5, 6))
+    tz_offset[non_utc] <- tz_sign * (tz_h * 3600L + tz_m * 60L)
+  }
+
+  # Build epoch seconds directly: date days * 86400 + time of day - tz offset
+  epoch <- as.double(dates) * 86400 + hour * 3600 + min * 60 + sec - tz_offset
+  .POSIXct(epoch, tz = Sys.timezone())
 }
 
 vec_cast.POSIXct.double <- # nolint: object_name_linter

From d6cf43b156fe4b2aeed33405fef6b3b007838679 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Kara Woo <kara.woo@posit.co>
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2026 12:04:47 -0800
Subject: [PATCH 2/4] remove ptype and simplify parsing

---
 DESCRIPTION                   |   1 -
 R/connect.R                   |  28 +++-
 R/connectapi.R                |   2 -
 R/content.R                   |  47 ++++--
 R/get.R                       |  34 +++--
 R/groups.R                    |   9 +-
 R/integrations.R              |   5 +-
 R/lazy.R                      |  70 ++++++---
 R/parse.R                     | 192 ++++++++++--------------
 R/ptype.R                     | 269 ----------------------------------
 R/remote.R                    |   2 +-
 R/user.R                      |   1 +
 R/variant.R                   |   9 +-
 man/PositConnect.Rd           |  18 ++-
 tests/integrated/helper.R     |  25 +++-
 tests/integrated/test-get.R   |  48 +++---
 tests/integrated/test-lazy.R  |  35 +++--
 tests/testthat/setup.R        |  12 +-
 tests/testthat/test-content.R |  55 +------
 tests/testthat/test-get.R     |  28 +---
 tests/testthat/test-parse.R   | 237 ++++++++++++++++--------------
 21 files changed, 445 insertions(+), 682 deletions(-)
 delete mode 100644 R/ptype.R

diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 9191dc5a..19c4ee61 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -87,7 +87,6 @@ Collate:
     'page.R'
     'parse.R'
     'promote.R'
-    'ptype.R'
     'remote.R'
     'runtime-caches.R'
     'schedule.R'
diff --git a/R/connect.R b/R/connect.R
index 0701d670..4c52b807 100644
--- a/R/connect.R
+++ b/R/connect.R
@@ -138,8 +138,11 @@ Connect <- R6::R6Class(
     #' @param parser How the response is parsed. If `NULL`, the `httr_response`
     #' will be returned. Otherwise, the argument is forwarded to
     #' `httr::content(res, as = parser)`.
+    #' @param simplify Logical; if `TRUE`, JSON arrays of objects are
+    #' simplified to data frames by jsonlite. Default `FALSE` preserves
+    #' list-of-lists for compatibility with pagination helpers.
     #' @param ... Additional arguments passed to the request function
-    request = function(method, url, ..., parser = "parsed") {
+    request = function(method, url, ..., parser = "parsed", simplify = FALSE) {
       old_opt <- options(scipen = 999)
       on.exit(options(old_opt), add = TRUE)
 
@@ -161,7 +164,21 @@ Connect <- R6::R6Class(
         res
       } else {
         self$raise_error(res)
-        httr::content(res, as = parser)
+        if (parser != "parsed") {
+          return(httr::content(res, as = parser))
+        }
+        if (is.null(res$content) || length(res$content) == 0) {
+          return(NULL)
+        }
+        content_text <- httr::content(res, as = "text", encoding = "UTF-8")
+        if (is.null(content_text) || nchar(content_text) == 0) {
+          return(NULL)
+        }
+        jsonlite::fromJSON(
+          content_text,
+          simplifyVector = simplify,
+          simplifyDataFrame = simplify
+        )
       }
     },
 
@@ -173,8 +190,11 @@ Connect <- R6::R6Class(
     #' @param parser How the response is parsed. If `NULL`, the `httr_response`
     #' will be returned. Otherwise, the argument is forwarded to
     #' `httr::content(res, as = parser)`.
-    GET = function(path, ..., url = self$api_url(path), parser = "parsed") {
-      self$request("GET", url, parser = parser, ...)
+    #' @param simplify Logical; if `TRUE`, JSON arrays of objects are
+    #' simplified to data frames by jsonlite. Default `FALSE` preserves
+    #' list-of-lists for compatibility with pagination helpers.
+    GET = function(path, ..., url = self$api_url(path), parser = "parsed", simplify = FALSE) {
+      self$request("GET", url, parser = parser, simplify = simplify, ...)
     },
 
     #' @description Perform an HTTP PUT request of the named API path.
diff --git a/R/connectapi.R b/R/connectapi.R
index 5b625696..bc430527 100644
--- a/R/connectapi.R
+++ b/R/connectapi.R
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@ utils::globalVariables(
   c(
     ".",
     "access_type",
-    "connectapi_ptypes",
     "guid",
     "last_deployed_time",
     "owner_guid",
@@ -27,6 +26,5 @@ current_connect_version <- "2024.03.0"
 
 .onLoad <- function(...) {
   vctrs::s3_register("dplyr::collect", "tbl_connect")
-  vctrs::s3_register("vctrs::vec_cast", "character.integer")
   invisible()
 }
diff --git a/R/content.R b/R/content.R
index 486c7e39..df7d23c8 100644
--- a/R/content.R
+++ b/R/content.R
@@ -788,7 +788,23 @@ get_jobs <- function(content) {
   validate_R6_class(content, "Content")
 
   jobs <- content$jobs()
-  parse_connectapi_typed(jobs, connectapi_ptypes$jobs, strict = TRUE)
+  out <- parse_connectapi_typed(
+    jobs,
+    datetime_cols = c("start_time", "end_time", "last_heartbeat_time", "queued_time")
+  )
+
+  # The older /applications/ endpoint returns timestamps as Unix epoch integers
+  # and ID fields as integers. Normalize to match the v1 endpoint's types.
+  # For the v1 endpoint these are already character/POSIXct, so the coercions
+  # are no-ops.
+  out <- coerce_epoch_to_posixct(
+    out,
+    c("start_time", "end_time", "last_heartbeat_time", "queued_time")
+  )
+  coerce_to_character(
+    out,
+    c("id", "ppid", "pid", "app_id", "content_id", "variant_id", "bundle_id")
+  )
 }
 
 #' Terminate Jobs
@@ -832,22 +848,19 @@ terminate_jobs <- function(content, keys = NULL) {
     keys <- all_jobs[all_jobs$status == 0, ]$key
     if (length(keys) == 0) {
       message("No active jobs found.")
-      return(vctrs::vec_ptype(connectapi_ptypes$job_termination))
+      return(tibble::tibble())
     }
   }
 
   res <- purrr::map(keys, content$register_job_kill_order)
   res_content <- purrr::map(res, httr::content)
-  res_df <- tibble::tibble(
-    parse_connectapi_typed(
-      res_content,
-      connectapi_ptypes$job_termination,
-      strict = TRUE
-    )
-  )
+  res_df <- parse_connectapi_typed(res_content)
   # Errors will not have the job_key.
   res_df$job_key <- keys
-  res_df
+  # Keep only the columns relevant to job termination; the API response
+  # includes extra fields (e.g. payload, guid) on error that vary by outcome.
+  keep <- c("app_id", "app_guid", "job_key", "job_id", "result", "code", "error")
+  res_df[, intersect(keep, names(res_df)), drop = FALSE]
 }
 
 #' @rdname get_jobs
@@ -896,7 +909,7 @@ get_log <- function(job, max_log_lines = NULL) {
     v1_url("content", job$app_guid, "jobs", job$key, "log"),
     query = query
   )
-  parse_connectapi_typed(res$entries, connectapi_ptypes$job_log)
+  parse_connectapi_typed(res$entries, datetime_cols = "timestamp")
 }
 
 #' Set RunAs User
@@ -1141,7 +1154,8 @@ get_bundles <- function(content) {
   validate_R6_class(content, "Content")
   bundles <- content$get_bundles()
 
-  parse_connectapi_typed(bundles, connectapi_ptypes$bundles)
+  out <- parse_connectapi_typed(bundles, datetime_cols = "created_time")
+  coerce_fs_bytes(out, "size")
 }
 
 #' @rdname get_bundles
@@ -1347,7 +1361,7 @@ get_group_permission <- function(content, guid) {
 get_content_permissions <- function(content, add_owner = TRUE) {
   validate_R6_class(content, "Content")
   res <- content$permissions(add_owner = add_owner)
-  parse_connectapi_typed(res, connectapi_ptypes$permissions)
+  parse_connectapi_typed(res)
 }
 
 #' Render a content item.
@@ -1495,7 +1509,7 @@ content_restart <- function(content) {
 get_content_packages <- function(content) {
   error_if_less_than(content$connect$version, "2025.01.0")
   res <- content$packages()
-  parse_connectapi_typed(res, connectapi_ptypes$content_packages)
+  parse_connectapi_typed(res)
 }
 
 #' Search for content on the Connect server
@@ -1627,5 +1641,8 @@ as.data.frame.connect_content_list <- function(
 #' @export
 as_tibble.connect_content_list <- function(x, ...) {
   content_data <- purrr::map(x, "content")
-  parse_connectapi_typed(content_data, connectapi_ptypes$content)
+  parse_connectapi_typed(
+    content_data,
+    datetime_cols = c("created_time", "last_deployed_time")
+  )
 }
diff --git a/R/get.R b/R/get.R
index 14ee3d31..e36a4bd4 100644
--- a/R/get.R
+++ b/R/get.R
@@ -73,7 +73,10 @@ get_users <- function(
     limit = limit
   )
 
-  out <- parse_connectapi_typed(res, connectapi_ptypes$users)
+  out <- parse_connectapi_typed(
+    res,
+    datetime_cols = c("created_time", "updated_time", "active_time")
+  )
 
   return(out)
 }
@@ -229,12 +232,8 @@ get_content <- function(
   # v2024.06.0.
   if (compare_connect_version(src$version, "2024.06.0") < 0) {
     include <- "tags,owner"
-    content_ptype <- connectapi_ptypes$content[,
-      names(connectapi_ptypes$content) != "vanity_url"
-    ]
   } else {
     include <- "tags,owner,vanity_url"
-    content_ptype <- connectapi_ptypes$content
   }
 
   res <- src$content(
@@ -253,7 +252,10 @@ get_content <- function(
     res <- res %>% purrr::keep(.p = .p)
   }
 
-  out <- parse_connectapi_typed(res, content_ptype)
+  out <- parse_connectapi_typed(
+    res,
+    datetime_cols = c("created_time", "last_deployed_time")
+  )
 
   return(out)
 }
@@ -327,7 +329,10 @@ content_list_by_tag <- function(src, tag) {
 
   res <- src$GET(v1_url("tags", tag_id, "content"))
 
-  out <- parse_connectapi_typed(res, connectapi_ptypes$content)
+  out <- parse_connectapi_typed(
+    res,
+    datetime_cols = c("created_time", "last_deployed_time")
+  )
   return(out)
 }
 
@@ -425,7 +430,7 @@ get_usage_shiny <- function(
 
   res <- page_cursor(src, res, limit = limit)
 
-  out <- parse_connectapi_typed(res, connectapi_ptypes$usage_shiny)
+  out <- parse_connectapi_typed(res, datetime_cols = c("started", "ended"))
 
   return(out)
 }
@@ -521,7 +526,7 @@ get_usage_static <- function(
 
   res <- page_cursor(src, res, limit = limit)
 
-  out <- parse_connectapi_typed(res, connectapi_ptypes$usage_static)
+  out <- parse_connectapi_typed(res, datetime_cols = "time")
 
   return(out)
 }
@@ -658,7 +663,7 @@ as.data.frame.connect_list_hits <- function(
   ...,
   unnest = TRUE
 ) {
-  usage_df <- parse_connectapi_typed(x, connectapi_ptypes$usage)
+  usage_df <- parse_connectapi_typed(x, datetime_cols = "timestamp")
   if (unnest) {
     if (!requireNamespace("tidyr", quietly = TRUE)) {
       stop(
@@ -750,7 +755,7 @@ get_audit_logs <- function(
 
   res <- page_cursor(src, res, limit = limit)
 
-  out <- parse_connectapi_typed(res, connectapi_ptypes$audit_logs)
+  out <- parse_connectapi_typed(res, datetime_cols = "time")
 
   return(out)
 }
@@ -792,7 +797,8 @@ get_procs <- function(src) {
       c(list(pid = y), x)
     }
   )
-  tbl_data <- parse_connectapi_typed(proc_prep, connectapi_ptypes$procs)
+  tbl_data <- parse_connectapi_typed(proc_prep)
+  tbl_data <- coerce_fs_bytes(tbl_data, "ram")
 
   return(tbl_data)
 }
@@ -1203,7 +1209,7 @@ get_packages <- function(src, name = NULL, page_size = 100000, limit = Inf) {
       page_size = page_size
     )
   )
-  out <- parse_connectapi_typed(res, connectapi_ptypes$packages)
+  out <- parse_connectapi_typed(res)
 
   # Connect is standardizing on using `content_id` and `content_guid`.
   # Handle that name change now in a forward-compatible way.
@@ -1239,5 +1245,5 @@ get_packages <- function(src, name = NULL, page_size = 100000, limit = Inf) {
 #' @export
 get_vanity_urls <- function(client) {
   res <- client$vanities()
-  parse_connectapi_typed(res, connectapi_ptypes$vanities)
+  parse_connectapi_typed(res, datetime_cols = "created_time")
 }
diff --git a/R/groups.R b/R/groups.R
index 79d98edb..1652edb3 100644
--- a/R/groups.R
+++ b/R/groups.R
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ get_groups <- function(src, page_size = 500, prefix = NULL, limit = Inf) {
     limit = limit
   )
 
-  parse_connectapi_typed(res, connectapi_ptypes$groups)
+  parse_connectapi_typed(res)
 }
 
 #' Get users within a specific group
@@ -106,7 +106,10 @@ get_group_members <- function(src, guid) {
 
   res <- src$group_members(guid)
 
-  parse_connectapi(res$results)
+  parse_connectapi_typed(
+    res$results,
+    datetime_cols = c("created_time", "updated_time", "active_time")
+  )
 }
 
 #' Get content access permissions for a group or groups
@@ -172,7 +175,7 @@ get_one_groups_content <- function(src, guid) {
       role = NA_character_
     ))
   }
-  parsed <- parse_connectapi_typed(res, connectapi_ptypes$group_content)
+  parsed <- parse_connectapi_typed(res)
 
   permissions_df <- purrr::list_rbind(
     purrr::map(
diff --git a/R/integrations.R b/R/integrations.R
index ad833bbc..d421871d 100644
--- a/R/integrations.R
+++ b/R/integrations.R
@@ -136,7 +136,10 @@ as.data.frame.connect_integration_list <- function(
 #' @return A tibble with one row per integration.
 #' @export
 as_tibble.connect_integration_list <- function(x, ...) {
-  parse_connectapi_typed(x, connectapi_ptypes$integrations)
+  parse_connectapi_typed(
+    x,
+    datetime_cols = c("created_time", "updated_time")
+  )
 }
 
 # Integration class ----
diff --git a/R/lazy.R b/R/lazy.R
index cbb03887..1ca2136d 100644
--- a/R/lazy.R
+++ b/R/lazy.R
@@ -37,9 +37,12 @@ tbl_connect <- function(
 
   from <- arg_match(from)
 
-  # TODO: go get the vars we should expect...
-  vars <- connectapi_ptypes[[from]]
-  if (is.null(vars)) vars <- character()
+  # Discover column names from a small API request rather than maintaining a
+  # hardcoded dictionary that must be updated every time the server changes.
+  vars <- tryCatch(
+    names(tbl_lazy_fetch(src, from, limit = 1)),
+    error = function(e) character()
+  )
 
   # TODO: figure out number of rows...
   ops <- op_base_connect(from, vars)
@@ -47,6 +50,44 @@ tbl_connect <- function(
   dplyr::make_tbl(c("connect", "lazy"), src = src, ops = ops)
 }
 
+# Datetime columns for each lazy table type. These must match the
+# datetime_cols passed in the corresponding getter functions:
+# get_users(), get_groups(), get_content(), get_usage_shiny(),
+# get_usage_static(), get_audit_logs().
+lazy_datetime_cols <- list(
+  users = c("created_time", "updated_time", "active_time"),
+  groups = character(),
+  content = c("created_time", "last_deployed_time"),
+  usage_shiny = c("started", "ended"),
+  usage_static = "time",
+  audit_logs = "time"
+)
+
+# Fetch data for a lazy table endpoint. Shared by tbl_connect (for column
+# discovery) and api_build.op_base_connect (for full collection).
+tbl_lazy_fetch <- function(src, from, limit = Inf) {
+  if (from == "users") {
+    res <- page_offset(src, src$users(), limit = limit)
+  } else if (from == "groups") {
+    res <- page_offset(src, src$groups(), limit = limit)
+  } else if (from == "content") {
+    # TODO: no limit notion here... we just pull all of them...
+    res <- src$content()
+  } else if (from == "usage_shiny") {
+    res <- src$inst_shiny_usage(limit = limit) %>%
+      page_cursor(src, ., limit = limit)
+  } else if (from == "usage_static") {
+    res <- src$inst_content_visits(limit = limit) %>%
+      page_cursor(src, ., limit = limit)
+  } else if (from == "audit_logs") {
+    res <- src$audit_logs(limit = limit) %>%
+      page_cursor(src, ., limit = limit)
+  } else {
+    stop(glue::glue("'{from}' is not recognized"))
+  }
+  parse_connectapi_typed(res, datetime_cols = lazy_datetime_cols[[from]])
+}
+
 # This will be registered in .onLoad if dplyr is available
 collect.tbl_connect <- # nolint
   function(x, ..., n = Inf) {
@@ -65,23 +106,7 @@ api_build.op_head <- function(op, con, ..., n) {
 
 #' @export
 api_build.op_base_connect <- function(op, con, ..., n) {
-  if (op$x == "users") {
-    res <- page_offset(con, con$users(), limit = n)
-  } else if (op$x == "groups") {
-    res <- page_offset(con, con$groups(), limit = n)
-  } else if (op$x == "content") {
-    # TODO: no limit notion here... we just pull all of them...
-    res <- con$content()
-  } else if (op$x == "usage_shiny") {
-    res <- con$inst_shiny_usage(limit = n) %>% page_cursor(con, ., limit = n)
-  } else if (op$x == "usage_static") {
-    res <- con$inst_content_visits(limit = n) %>% page_cursor(con, ., limit = n)
-  } else if (op$x == "audit_logs") {
-    res <- con$audit_logs(limit = n) %>% page_cursor(con, ., limit = n)
-  } else {
-    stop(glue::glue("'{op$x}' is not recognized"))
-  }
-  parse_connectapi_typed(res, op$ptype)
+  tbl_lazy_fetch(con, op$x, limit = n)
 }
 
 cat_line <- function(...) {
@@ -124,13 +149,12 @@ op_base_connect <- function(x, vars) {
 }
 
 op_base <- function(x, vars, class = character()) {
-  stopifnot(is.character(vars) || is.character(names(vars)))
+  stopifnot(is.character(vars))
 
   structure(
     list(
       x = x,
-      vars = names(vars),
-      ptype = vars
+      vars = vars
     ),
     class = c(paste0("op_base_", class), "op_base", "op")
   )
diff --git a/R/parse.R b/R/parse.R
index 2e141d37..ae3cc59a 100644
--- a/R/parse.R
+++ b/R/parse.R
@@ -27,64 +27,80 @@ make_timestamp <- function(input) {
   safe_format(input, "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ", tz = "UTC", usetz = FALSE)
 }
 
-ensure_columns <- function(.data, ptype, strict = FALSE) {
-  # Given a prototype, ensure that all columns are present and cast to the correct type.
-  # If a column is missing in .data, it will be created with all missing values of the correct type.
-  # If a column is present in both, it will be cast to the correct type.
-  # If a column is present in .data but not in ptype, it will be left as is.
-  # If `strict == TRUE`, include only columns present in the ptype, in the order they occur.
-  for (i in names(ptype)) {
-    .data <- ensure_column(.data, ptype[[i]], i)
-  }
+# Post-parse helpers for special column types. These are used by individual
+# getter functions to coerce columns that jsonlite cannot infer automatically
+# (e.g. byte sizes, 64-bit integers, epoch timestamps).
 
-  if (strict) {
-    .data <- .data[, names(ptype), drop = FALSE]
+coerce_fs_bytes <- function(df, col) {
+  if (col %in% names(df)) {
+    df[[col]] <- fs::as_fs_bytes(df[[col]])
   }
-
-  .data
+  df
 }
 
-ensure_column <- function(data, default, name) {
-  stopifnot(length(default) == 1)
-  col <- data[[name]]
-  if (rlang::is_null(col)) {
-    col <- vctrs::vec_rep(default, nrow(data))
-    col <- vctrs::vec_cast(col, default)
-  } else {
-    if (
-      inherits(default, "POSIXct") && !inherits(col, "POSIXct")
-    ) {
-      # manual fix because vctrs::vec_cast cannot cast double -> datetime or char -> datetime
-      col <- coerce_datetime(col, default, name = name)
-    }
-
-    if (inherits(default, "fs_bytes") && !inherits(col, "fs_bytes")) {
-      col <- coerce_fsbytes(col, default)
-    }
+coerce_integer64 <- function(df, col) {
+  if (col %in% names(df)) {
+    df[[col]] <- bit64::as.integer64(df[[col]])
+  }
+  df
+}
 
-    if (inherits(default, "integer64") && !inherits(col, "integer64")) {
-      col <- bit64::as.integer64(col)
+coerce_epoch_to_posixct <- function(df, cols) {
+  for (col in intersect(cols, names(df))) {
+    if (is.numeric(df[[col]])) {
+      df[[col]] <- .POSIXct(as.double(df[[col]]), tz = Sys.timezone())
     }
+  }
+  df
+}
 
-    if (inherits(default, "list") && !inherits(col, "list")) {
-      col <- list(col)
+coerce_to_character <- function(df, cols) {
+  for (col in intersect(cols, names(df))) {
+    if (is.numeric(df[[col]])) {
+      df[[col]] <- as.character(df[[col]])
     }
+  }
+  df
+}
 
-    col <- vctrs::vec_cast(col, default, x_arg = name)
+parse_connectapi_typed <- function(data, datetime_cols = character()) {
+  if (inherits(data, "data.frame")) {
+    # Strip custom S3 classes to avoid dispatch loops (e.g., connect_list_hits
+    # defines as_tibble which calls parse_connectapi_typed, causing recursion)
+    class(data) <- "data.frame"
+    df <- tibble::as_tibble(data)
+  } else {
+    # Fallback for list-of-lists (backward compat, non-simplified responses)
+    df <- parse_connectapi(data)
   }
-  data[[name]] <- col
-  data
+  for (col in intersect(datetime_cols, names(df))) {
+    df[[col]] <- coerce_datetime(df[[col]])
+  }
+  df
 }
 
-parse_connectapi_typed <- function(data, ptype, strict = FALSE) {
-  ensure_columns(parse_connectapi(data), ptype, strict)
+# Coerce a column to POSIXct. Handles character (RFC 3339), numeric (epoch
+# seconds), POSIXct (pass-through), and all-NA logical vectors.
+coerce_datetime <- function(x) {
+  if (is.null(x)) {
+    .POSIXct(double(), tz = Sys.timezone())
+  } else if (is.character(x)) {
+    parse_connect_rfc3339(x)
+  } else if (is.numeric(x)) {
+    .POSIXct(as.double(x), tz = Sys.timezone())
+  } else if (inherits(x, "POSIXct")) {
+    x
+  } else if (is.logical(x) && all(is.na(x))) {
+    .POSIXct(rep(NA_real_, length(x)), tz = Sys.timezone())
+  } else {
+    stop("Cannot coerce ", class(x)[[1]], " to POSIXct", call. = FALSE)
+  }
 }
 
 # Build a tibble column-by-column instead of row-by-row (via list_rbind).
 # This avoids type conflicts when the same field is NULL in some rows and
 # non-NULL in others: NULL -> NA, and unlist() coerces that NA to match the
-# type of the non-null values in the same column. ensure_columns() handles
-# any further type coercion (e.g. character -> POSIXct) after this step.
+# type of the non-null values in the same column.
 parse_connectapi <- function(data) {
   if (length(data) == 0) return(tibble::tibble())
 
@@ -115,43 +131,6 @@ parse_connectapi <- function(data) {
   tibble::new_tibble(cols, nrow = n)
 }
 
-coerce_fsbytes <- function(x, to, ...) {
-  if (is.numeric(x)) {
-    fs::as_fs_bytes(x)
-  } else {
-    vctrs::stop_incompatible_cast(x = x, to = to, x_arg = "x", to_arg = "to")
-  }
-}
-
-# name - optional. Must be named, the name of the variable / column being converted
-coerce_datetime <- function(x, to, ...) {
-  tmp_name <- rlang::dots_list(...)[["name"]]
-  if (is.null(tmp_name) || is.na(tmp_name) || !is.character(tmp_name)) {
-    tmp_name <- "x"
-  }
-
-  if (is.null(x)) {
-    as.POSIXct(character(), tz = tzone(to))
-  } else if (is.numeric(x)) {
-    vctrs::new_datetime(as.double(x), tzone = tzone(to))
-  } else if (is.character(x)) {
-    parse_connect_rfc3339(x)
-  } else if (inherits(x, "POSIXct")) {
-    x
-  } else if (
-    all(is.logical(x) & is.na(x)) && length(is.logical(x) & is.na(x)) > 0
-  ) {
-    NA_datetime_
-  } else {
-    vctrs::stop_incompatible_cast(
-      x = x,
-      to = to,
-      x_arg = tmp_name,
-      to_arg = "to"
-    )
-  }
-}
-
 # nolint start: commented_code_linter
 # Parses a character vector of dates received from Connect, using use RFC 3339,
 # returning a vector of POSIXct datetimes.
@@ -170,23 +149,31 @@ coerce_datetime <- function(x, to, ...) {
 parse_connect_rfc3339 <- function(x) {
   if (length(x) == 0) return(.POSIXct(double(), tz = Sys.timezone()))
 
+  na_mask <- is.na(x)
+  if (all(na_mask)) {
+    return(.POSIXct(rep(NA_real_, length(x)), tz = Sys.timezone()))
+  }
+
+  result <- rep(NA_real_, length(x))
+  xn <- x[!na_mask]
+
   # The date portion is always at fixed positions: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS
-  dates <- as.Date(substr(x, 1, 10))
-  hour <- as.integer(substr(x, 12, 13))
-  min <- as.integer(substr(x, 15, 16))
+  dates <- as.Date(substr(xn, 1, 10))
+  hour <- as.integer(substr(xn, 12, 13))
+  min <- as.integer(substr(xn, 15, 16))
 
   # Seconds (with optional fractional part) run from position 18 to just before
   # the timezone suffix. The suffix is either "Z" (1 char) or "+HH:MM" (6 chars).
-  nc <- nchar(x)
-  is_utc <- endsWith(x, "Z")
+  nc <- nchar(xn)
+  is_utc <- endsWith(xn, "Z")
   tz_len <- ifelse(is_utc, 1L, 6L)
-  sec <- as.double(substr(x, 18, nc - tz_len))
+  sec <- as.double(substr(xn, 18, nc - tz_len))
 
   # Compute timezone offset in seconds for non-UTC timestamps
-  tz_offset <- rep(0, length(x))
+  tz_offset <- rep(0, length(xn))
   non_utc <- which(!is_utc)
   if (length(non_utc) > 0) {
-    tz_str <- substr(x[non_utc], nc[non_utc] - 5, nc[non_utc])
+    tz_str <- substr(xn[non_utc], nc[non_utc] - 5, nc[non_utc])
     tz_sign <- ifelse(substr(tz_str, 1, 1) == "+", 1, -1)
     tz_h <- as.integer(substr(tz_str, 2, 3))
     tz_m <- as.integer(substr(tz_str, 5, 6))
@@ -195,35 +182,6 @@ parse_connect_rfc3339 <- function(x) {
 
   # Build epoch seconds directly: date days * 86400 + time of day - tz offset
   epoch <- as.double(dates) * 86400 + hour * 3600 + min * 60 + sec - tz_offset
-  .POSIXct(epoch, tz = Sys.timezone())
-}
-
-vec_cast.POSIXct.double <- # nolint: object_name_linter
-  function(x, to, ...) {
-    warn_experimental("vec_cast.POSIXct.double")
-    vctrs::new_datetime(x, tzone = tzone(to))
-  }
-
-vec_cast.POSIXct.character <- # nolint: object_name_linter
-  function(x, to, ...) {
-    as.POSIXct(x, tz = tzone(to))
-  }
-
-tzone <- function(x) {
-  attr(x, "tzone")[[1]] %||% ""
-}
-
-vec_cast.character.integer <- # nolint: object_name_linter
-  function(x, to, ...) {
-    as.character(x)
-  }
-
-new_datetime <- function(x = double(), tzone = "") {
-  tzone <- tzone %||% ""
-  if (is.integer(x)) {
-    x <- as.double(x)
-  }
-  stopifnot(is.double(x))
-  stopifnot(is.character(tzone))
-  structure(x, tzone = tzone, class = c("POSIXct", "POSIXt"))
+  result[!na_mask] <- epoch
+  .POSIXct(result, tz = Sys.timezone())
 }
diff --git a/R/ptype.R b/R/ptype.R
deleted file mode 100644
index 6e274f1e..00000000
--- a/R/ptype.R
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,269 +0,0 @@
-NA_datetime_ <- # nolint: object_name_linter
-  vctrs::new_datetime(NA_real_, tzone = Sys.timezone())
-NA_list_ <- # nolint: object_name_linter
-  list(list())
-
-connectapi_ptypes <- list(
-  users = tibble::tibble(
-    "email" = NA_character_,
-    "username" = NA_character_,
-    "first_name" = NA_character_,
-    "last_name" = NA_character_,
-    "user_role" = NA_character_,
-    "created_time" = NA_datetime_,
-    "updated_time" = NA_datetime_,
-    "active_time" = NA_datetime_,
-    "confirmed" = FALSE,
-    "locked" = FALSE,
-    "external_id" = NA_character_,
-    "guid" = NA_character_
-  ),
-  groups = tibble::tibble(
-    "guid" = NA_character_,
-    "name" = NA_character_,
-    "owner_guid" = NA_character_,
-    "gid" = NA_character_
-  ),
-  usage_shiny = tibble::tibble(
-    "content_guid" = NA_character_,
-    "user_guid" = NA_character_,
-    "started" = NA_datetime_,
-    "ended" = NA_datetime_,
-    "data_version" = NA_integer_
-  ),
-  usage_static = tibble::tibble(
-    "content_guid" = NA_character_,
-    "user_guid" = NA_character_,
-    "variant_key" = NA_character_,
-    "time" = NA_datetime_,
-    "rendering_id" = NA_character_,
-    "bundle_id" = NA_character_,
-    "data_version" = NA_integer_
-  ),
-  usage = tibble::tibble(
-    "id" = NA_integer_,
-    "user_guid" = NA_character_,
-    "content_guid" = NA_character_,
-    "timestamp" = NA_datetime_,
-    "data" = NA_list_
-  ),
-  content = tibble::tibble(
-    "guid" = NA_character_,
-    "name" = NA_character_,
-    "title" = NA_character_,
-    "description" = NA_character_,
-    "access_type" = NA_character_,
-    "connection_timeout" = NA_integer_,
-    "read_timeout" = NA_integer_,
-    "init_timeout" = NA_integer_,
-    "idle_timeout" = NA_integer_,
-    "max_processes" = NA_integer_,
-    "min_processes" = NA_integer_,
-    "max_conns_per_process" = NA_integer_,
-    "load_factor" = NA_real_,
-    "created_time" = NA_datetime_,
-    "last_deployed_time" = NA_datetime_,
-    "bundle_id" = NA_character_,
-    "app_mode" = NA_character_,
-    "content_category" = NA_character_,
-    "parameterized" = FALSE,
-    "cluster_name" = NA_character_,
-    "image_name" = NA_character_,
-    "r_version" = NA_character_,
-    "py_version" = NA_character_,
-    "quarto_version" = NA_character_,
-    "run_as" = NA_character_,
-    "run_as_current_user" = FALSE,
-    "owner_guid" = NA_character_,
-    "content_url" = NA_character_,
-    "dashboard_url" = NA_character_,
-    "app_role" = NA_character_,
-    "vanity_url" = NA_character_,
-    "id" = NA_character_,
-    "owner" = NA_list_,
-    "tags" = NA_list_,
-  ),
-  content_old = tibble::tibble(
-    "id" = NA_integer_,
-    "guid" = NA_character_,
-    "access_type" = NA_character_,
-    "connection_timeout" = NA_real_,
-    "read_timeout" = NA_real_,
-    "init_timeout" = NA_real_,
-    "idle_timeout" = NA_real_,
-    "max_processes" = NA_integer_,
-    "min_processes" = NA_integer_,
-    "max_conns_per_process" = NA_integer_,
-    "load_factor" = NA_real_,
-    "url" = NA_character_,
-    "vanity_url" = NA,
-    "name" = NA_character_,
-    "title" = NA_character_,
-    "bundle_id" = NA_integer_,
-    # (1=shiny, 2=shiny Rmd, 3=source Rmd, 4=static, 5=api, 6=tensorflow, 7=python, 8=flask, 9=dash, 10=streamlit)
-    "app_mode" = NA_integer_,
-    "content_category" = NA_character_,
-    "has_parameters" = NA,
-    "created_time" = NA_datetime_,
-    "last_deployed_time" = NA_datetime_,
-    "r_version" = NA_character_,
-    "py_version" = NA_character_,
-    "build_status" = NA_integer_,
-    "run_as" = NA_character_,
-    "run_as_current_user" = NA,
-    "description" = NA_character_,
-    "app_role" = NA_character_,
-    "owner_first_name" = NA_character_,
-    "owner_last_name" = NA_character_,
-    "owner_username" = NA_character_,
-    "owner_guid" = NA_character_,
-    "owner_email" = NA_character_,
-    "owner_locked" = NA,
-    "is_scheduled" = NA,
-    "git" = NA_list_
-  ),
-  audit_logs = tibble::tibble(
-    "id" = NA_character_,
-    "time" = NA_datetime_,
-    "user_id" = NA_character_,
-    "user_guid" = NA_character_,
-    "user_description" = NA_character_,
-    "action" = NA_character_,
-    "event_description" = NA_character_
-  ),
-  procs = tibble::tibble(
-    pid = NA_character_,
-    appId = NA_integer_,
-    appGuid = NA_character_,
-    appName = NA_character_,
-    appUrl = NA_character_,
-    appRunAs = NA_character_,
-    type = NA_character_,
-    cpuCurrent = NA_real_,
-    cpuTotal = NA_integer_,
-    ram = fs::as_fs_bytes(NA_integer_)
-  ),
-  variant = tibble::tibble(
-    id = NA_integer_,
-    app_id = NA_integer_,
-    key = NA_character_,
-    bundle_id = NA_integer_,
-    is_default = NA,
-    name = NA_character_,
-    email_collaborators = NA,
-    email_viewers = NA,
-    created_time = NA_datetime_,
-    rendering_id = NA_integer_,
-    render_time = NA_datetime_,
-    render_duration = bit64::NA_integer64_,
-    visibility = NA_character_,
-    owner_id = NA_integer_
-  ),
-  rendering = tibble::tibble(
-    id = NA_integer_,
-    app_id = NA_integer_,
-    variant_id = NA_integer_,
-    bundle_id = NA_integer_,
-    job_key = NA_character_,
-    render_time = NA_datetime_,
-    render_duration = bit64::as.integer64(NA_integer_),
-    active = NA,
-    app_guid = NA_character_,
-    variant_key = NA_character_,
-  ),
-  jobs = tibble::tibble(
-    id = NA_character_,
-    ppid = NA_character_,
-    pid = NA_character_,
-    key = NA_character_,
-    remote_id = NA_character_,
-    content_id = NA_character_,
-    content_guid = NA_character_,
-    app_id = NA_character_,
-    app_guid = NA_character_,
-    variant_id = NA_character_,
-    bundle_id = NA_character_,
-    start_time = NA_datetime_,
-    end_time = NA_datetime_,
-    last_heartbeat_time = NA_datetime_,
-    queued_time = NA_datetime_,
-    queue_name = NA_character_,
-    tag = NA_character_,
-    exit_code = NA_integer_,
-    status = NA_integer_,
-    hostname = NA_character_,
-    cluster = NA_character_,
-    image = NA_character_,
-    run_as = NA_character_,
-  ),
-  bundles = tibble::tibble(
-    id = NA_character_,
-    content_guid = NA_character_,
-    created_time = NA_datetime_,
-    r_version = NA_character_,
-    py_version = NA_character_,
-    active = NA,
-    size = fs::as_fs_bytes(NA_integer_),
-    metadata = NA_list_,
-  ),
-  permissions = tibble::tibble(
-    id = NA_character_,
-    content_guid = NA_character_,
-    principal_guid = NA_character_,
-    principal_type = NA_character_,
-    role = NA_character_
-  ),
-  group_content = tibble::tibble(
-    content_guid = NA_character_,
-    content_name = NA_character_,
-    content_title = NA_character_,
-    access_type = NA_character_,
-    permissions = NA_list_
-  ),
-  job_termination = tibble::tibble(
-    app_id = NA_integer_,
-    app_guid = NA_character_,
-    job_key = NA_character_,
-    job_id = NA_character_,
-    result = NA_character_,
-    code = NA_integer_,
-    error = NA_character_
-  ),
-  vanities = tibble::tibble(
-    content_guid = NA_character_,
-    path = NA_character_,
-    created_time = NA_datetime_
-  ),
-  job_log = tibble::tibble(
-    source = NA_character_,
-    timestamp = NA_datetime_,
-    data = NA_character_
-  ),
-  packages = tibble::tibble(
-    language = NA_character_,
-    language_version = NA_character_,
-    name = NA_character_,
-    version = NA_character_,
-    hash = NA_character_,
-    bundle_id = NA_character_,
-    app_id = NA_character_,
-    app_guid = NA_character_,
-  ),
-  content_packages = tibble::tibble(
-    language = NA_character_,
-    name = NA_character_,
-    version = NA_character_,
-    hash = NA_character_
-  ),
-  integrations = tibble::tibble(
-    id = NA_character_,
-    guid = NA_character_,
-    created_time = NA_datetime_,
-    updated_time = NA_datetime_,
-    name = NA_character_,
-    description = NA_character_,
-    template = NA_character_,
-    auth_type = NA_character_,
-    config = NA_list_
-  )
-)
diff --git a/R/remote.R b/R/remote.R
index c57b71d8..f1141bce 100644
--- a/R/remote.R
+++ b/R/remote.R
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ groups_create_remote <- function(
   expect <- as.integer(expect)
   if (check) {
     local_groups <- get_groups(connect, prefix = prefix)
-    if (exact) {
+    if (exact && nrow(local_groups) > 0) {
       local_groups <- local_groups[local_groups["name"] == prefix, ]
     }
     if (nrow(local_groups) > 0) {
diff --git a/R/user.R b/R/user.R
index 90b2122b..938dc5b7 100644
--- a/R/user.R
+++ b/R/user.R
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ user_guid_from_username <- function(client, username) {
 
   user <- client$users(prefix = username)
   res <- user$results
+
   if (length(res) == 0) {
     stop("ERROR: user not found")
   } else if (length(res) > 1) {
diff --git a/R/variant.R b/R/variant.R
index 4aa55be0..f7287890 100644
--- a/R/variant.R
+++ b/R/variant.R
@@ -257,7 +257,11 @@ get_variants <- function(content) {
 
   variants <- content$variants()
 
-  parse_connectapi_typed(variants, connectapi_ptypes$variant)
+  out <- parse_connectapi_typed(
+    variants,
+    datetime_cols = c("created_time", "render_time")
+  )
+  coerce_integer64(out, "render_duration")
 }
 
 #' @rdname variant
@@ -300,7 +304,8 @@ get_variant_renderings <- function(variant) {
   validate_R6_class(variant, "Variant")
 
   renders <- variant$renderings()
-  parse_connectapi_typed(renders, connectapi_ptypes$rendering)
+  out <- parse_connectapi_typed(renders, datetime_cols = "render_time")
+  coerce_integer64(out, "render_duration")
 }
 
 #' @rdname variant_render
diff --git a/man/PositConnect.Rd b/man/PositConnect.Rd
index f6730e4b..27deb076 100644
--- a/man/PositConnect.Rd
+++ b/man/PositConnect.Rd
@@ -251,7 +251,7 @@ Build a URL relative to the server root
 \subsection{Method \code{request()}}{
 General wrapper around \code{httr} verbs
 \subsection{Usage}{
-\if{html}{\out{<div class="r">}}\preformatted{Connect$request(method, url, ..., parser = "parsed")}\if{html}{\out{</div>}}
+\if{html}{\out{<div class="r">}}\preformatted{Connect$request(method, url, ..., parser = "parsed", simplify = FALSE)}\if{html}{\out{</div>}}
 }
 
 \subsection{Arguments}{
@@ -266,6 +266,10 @@ General wrapper around \code{httr} verbs
 \item{\code{parser}}{How the response is parsed. If \code{NULL}, the \code{httr_response}
 will be returned. Otherwise, the argument is forwarded to
 \code{httr::content(res, as = parser)}.}
+
+\item{\code{simplify}}{Logical; if \code{TRUE}, JSON arrays of objects are
+simplified to data frames by jsonlite. Default \code{FALSE} preserves
+list-of-lists for compatibility with pagination helpers.}
 }
 \if{html}{\out{</div>}}
 }
@@ -276,7 +280,13 @@ will be returned. Otherwise, the argument is forwarded to
 \subsection{Method \code{GET()}}{
 Perform an HTTP GET request of the named API path.
 \subsection{Usage}{
-\if{html}{\out{<div class="r">}}\preformatted{Connect$GET(path, ..., url = self$api_url(path), parser = "parsed")}\if{html}{\out{</div>}}
+\if{html}{\out{<div class="r">}}\preformatted{Connect$GET(
+  path,
+  ...,
+  url = self$api_url(path),
+  parser = "parsed",
+  simplify = FALSE
+)}\if{html}{\out{</div>}}
 }
 
 \subsection{Arguments}{
@@ -292,6 +302,10 @@ a server resource that is not under \verb{/__api__}}
 \item{\code{parser}}{How the response is parsed. If \code{NULL}, the \code{httr_response}
 will be returned. Otherwise, the argument is forwarded to
 \code{httr::content(res, as = parser)}.}
+
+\item{\code{simplify}}{Logical; if \code{TRUE}, JSON arrays of objects are
+simplified to data frames by jsonlite. Default \code{FALSE} preserves
+list-of-lists for compatibility with pagination helpers.}
 }
 \if{html}{\out{</div>}}
 }
diff --git a/tests/integrated/helper.R b/tests/integrated/helper.R
index 78dae128..a1b9c62c 100644
--- a/tests/integrated/helper.R
+++ b/tests/integrated/helper.R
@@ -1,11 +1,24 @@
-expect_ptype_equal <- function(actual, expected, exact = TRUE) {
+expect_column_types <- function(actual, expected_types, exact = TRUE) {
+  # expected_types is a named list: list(col_name = "type_string", ...)
   if (!exact) {
-    # Keep only the columns from each that are in the other
-    shared_names <- intersect(names(actual), names(expected))
-    actual <- actual[, shared_names]
-    expected <- expected[, shared_names]
+    shared_names <- intersect(names(actual), names(expected_types))
+    expected_types <- expected_types[shared_names]
+  }
+  for (nm in names(expected_types)) {
+    expect_true(
+      nm %in% names(actual),
+      info = paste("Expected column", nm, "not found")
+    )
+    if (nm %in% names(actual)) {
+      expect_true(
+        inherits(actual[[nm]], expected_types[[nm]]),
+        info = paste0(
+          "Column '", nm, "': expected ", expected_types[[nm]],
+          ", got ", paste(class(actual[[nm]]), collapse = "/")
+        )
+      )
+    }
   }
-  expect_equal(vctrs::vec_ptype(actual), vctrs::vec_ptype(expected))
 }
 
 skip_if_connect_older_than <- function(client, version) {
diff --git a/tests/integrated/test-get.R b/tests/integrated/test-get.R
index 30e347f5..27b4d847 100644
--- a/tests/integrated/test-get.R
+++ b/tests/integrated/test-get.R
@@ -10,7 +10,11 @@ test_that("get_users works", {
   users <- get_users(client)
 
   expect_s3_class(users, c("tbl_df", "tbl", "data.frame"))
-  expect_ptype_equal(users, connectapi_ptypes$users, exact = FALSE)
+
+  expect_true("guid" %in% names(users))
+  expect_true("email" %in% names(users))
+  expect_true("username" %in% names(users))
+  expect_s3_class(users$created_time, "POSIXct")
 
   # Other tests create users, so specifying the exact number here is conditional
   # on the contents of other tests and the order that tests run in.
@@ -22,39 +26,41 @@ test_that("get_users works", {
 })
 
 test_that("get_groups works", {
+  # Create a group so we have data to assert against (test-get.R runs before
+  # test-groups.R alphabetically).
+  client$groups_create(name = paste0("test-get-groups-", uuid::UUIDgenerate()))
+
   groups_list <- get_groups(client)
   expect_s3_class(groups_list, c("tbl_df", "tbl", "data.frame"))
-
-  expect_ptype_equal(groups_list, connectapi_ptypes$groups)
+  expect_true(nrow(groups_list) > 0)
+  expect_true("guid" %in% names(groups_list))
+  expect_true("name" %in% names(groups_list))
 })
 
 test_that("get_content works", {
   scoped_experimental_silence()
   content_list <- get_content(client)
   expect_s3_class(content_list, c("tbl_df", "tbl", "data.frame"))
-
-  # various attributes have been added over the years, so exact match
-  # doesn't work against all versions of Connect
-  expect_ptype_equal(content_list, connectapi_ptypes$content, exact = FALSE)
+  expect_true("guid" %in% names(content_list))
+  expect_true("name" %in% names(content_list))
+  expect_s3_class(content_list$created_time, "POSIXct")
 })
 
 test_that("get_usage_shiny works", {
   shiny_usage <- get_usage_shiny(client)
   expect_s3_class(shiny_usage, c("tbl_df", "tbl", "data.frame"))
-
-  expect_ptype_equal(shiny_usage, connectapi_ptypes$usage_shiny)
+  # No shiny apps are deployed in integration tests, so this may be empty.
+  if (nrow(shiny_usage) > 0) {
+    expect_true("content_guid" %in% names(shiny_usage))
+    expect_s3_class(shiny_usage$started, "POSIXct")
+  }
 })
 
 test_that("get_usage_static works", {
   content_visits <- get_usage_static(client)
   expect_s3_class(content_visits, c("tbl_df", "tbl", "data.frame"))
-
-  # path was added to usage_static in 2024
-  expect_ptype_equal(
-    content_visits,
-    connectapi_ptypes$usage_static,
-    exact = FALSE
-  )
+  expect_true("content_guid" %in% names(content_visits))
+  expect_s3_class(content_visits$time, "POSIXct")
 })
 
 test_that("get_audit_logs works", {
@@ -63,17 +69,19 @@ test_that("get_audit_logs works", {
 
   # This is different on older versions, not sure it's worth worrying about how
   skip_if_connect_older_than(client, "2022.09.0")
-  expect_ptype_equal(audit_list, connectapi_ptypes$audit_logs)
+  expect_true("id" %in% names(audit_list))
+  expect_s3_class(audit_list$time, "POSIXct")
 })
 
 test_that("get_procs works", {
   scoped_experimental_silence()
   proc_data <- get_procs(client)
 
-  # TODO: This is not a great test, since no processes are running
-  # we could always start a content restoration...
+  # No long-running processes on a fresh test server, so this is usually empty.
   expect_s3_class(proc_data, "tbl_df")
-  expect_ptype_equal(proc_data, connectapi_ptypes$procs)
+  if (nrow(proc_data) > 0) {
+    expect_true(all(c("pid", "appId", "appGuid") %in% names(proc_data)))
+  }
 })
 
 # experimental --------------------------------------------
diff --git a/tests/integrated/test-lazy.R b/tests/integrated/test-lazy.R
index 36ee6627..26eb2947 100644
--- a/tests/integrated/test-lazy.R
+++ b/tests/integrated/test-lazy.R
@@ -35,7 +35,9 @@ test_that("users works", {
   expect_type(colnames(users), "character")
   expect_gt(length(colnames(users)), 1)
 
-  expect_ptype_equal(users_local, connectapi_ptypes$users, exact = FALSE)
+  expect_true("guid" %in% names(users_local))
+  expect_true("email" %in% names(users_local))
+  expect_s3_class(users_local$created_time, "POSIXct")
 })
 
 test_that("usage_static works", {
@@ -49,12 +51,8 @@ test_that("usage_static works", {
   expect_type(colnames(content_visits), "character")
   expect_gt(length(colnames(content_visits)), 1)
 
-  # path was added in 2024
-  expect_ptype_equal(
-    content_visits_local,
-    connectapi_ptypes$usage_static,
-    exact = FALSE
-  )
+  expect_true("content_guid" %in% names(content_visits_local))
+  expect_s3_class(content_visits_local$time, "POSIXct")
 })
 
 test_that("usage_shiny works", {
@@ -66,9 +64,13 @@ test_that("usage_shiny works", {
 
   expect_true(is.na(nrow(shiny_usage)))
   expect_type(colnames(shiny_usage), "character")
-  expect_gt(length(colnames(shiny_usage)), 1)
 
-  expect_ptype_equal(shiny_usage_local, connectapi_ptypes$usage_shiny)
+  # No shiny apps are deployed in integration tests, so this may be empty.
+  if (nrow(shiny_usage_local) > 0) {
+    expect_gt(length(colnames(shiny_usage)), 1)
+    expect_true("content_guid" %in% names(shiny_usage_local))
+    expect_s3_class(shiny_usage_local$started, "POSIXct")
+  }
 })
 
 test_that("content works", {
@@ -83,13 +85,8 @@ test_that("content works", {
   expect_type(colnames(content_list), "character")
   expect_gt(length(colnames(content_list)), 1)
 
-  # various attributes have been added over the years, so exact match
-  # doesn't work against all versions of Connect
-  expect_ptype_equal(
-    content_list_local,
-    connectapi_ptypes$content,
-    exact = FALSE
-  )
+  expect_true("guid" %in% names(content_list_local))
+  expect_s3_class(content_list_local$created_time, "POSIXct")
 })
 
 test_that("groups works", {
@@ -104,7 +101,8 @@ test_that("groups works", {
   expect_type(colnames(groups_list), "character")
   expect_gt(length(colnames(groups_list)), 1)
 
-  expect_ptype_equal(groups_list_local, connectapi_ptypes$groups, exact = FALSE)
+  expect_true("guid" %in% names(groups_list_local))
+  expect_true("name" %in% names(groups_list_local))
 })
 
 test_that("audit_logs works", {
@@ -121,5 +119,6 @@ test_that("audit_logs works", {
 
   # This is different on older versions, not sure it's worth worrying about how
   skip_if_connect_older_than(client, "2022.09.0")
-  expect_ptype_equal(audit_list_local, connectapi_ptypes$audit_logs)
+  expect_true("id" %in% names(audit_list_local))
+  expect_s3_class(audit_list_local$time, "POSIXct")
 })
diff --git a/tests/testthat/setup.R b/tests/testthat/setup.R
index dd8191e2..e3f21d78 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/setup.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/setup.R
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ MockConnect <- R6Class(
     # The request function matches the route against the routes in the names of
     # the response list. When a response is selected, it is removed from the
     # list.
-    request = function(method, url, ..., parser = "parsed") {
+    request = function(method, url, ..., parser = "parsed", simplify = FALSE) {
       route <- paste(method, url)
 
       # Record call
@@ -67,7 +67,15 @@ MockConnect <- R6Class(
         res
       } else {
         self$raise_error(res)
-        httr::content(res, as = parser)
+        content_text <- httr::content(res, as = "text", encoding = "UTF-8")
+        if (is.null(content_text) || nchar(content_text) == 0) {
+          return(NULL)
+        }
+        jsonlite::fromJSON(
+          content_text,
+          simplifyVector = simplify,
+          simplifyDataFrame = simplify
+        )
       }
     },
     responses = list(),
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-content.R b/tests/testthat/test-content.R
index 164e4706..e15d9d5c 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-content.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-content.R
@@ -352,7 +352,7 @@ with_mock_api({
         app_id = c(NA, 52389L),
         app_guid = c(NA, "8f37d6e0"),
         job_key = c("waaTO7v75I84S1hQ", "k3sHkEoWJNwQim7g"),
-        job_id = c(NA, "40669829"),
+        job_id = c(NA_integer_, 40669829L),
         result = c(NA, "Order to kill job registered"),
         code = c(163L, NA),
         error = c(
@@ -366,18 +366,7 @@ with_mock_api({
   test_that("terminate_jobs() functions as expected with no active jobs", {
     item <- content_item(client, "01234567")
     expect_message(
-      expect_equal(
-        terminate_jobs(item),
-        tibble::tibble(
-          app_id = integer(),
-          app_guid = character(),
-          job_key = character(),
-          job_id = character(),
-          result = character(),
-          code = integer(),
-          error = character()
-        )
-      ),
+      expect_equal(terminate_jobs(item), tibble::tibble()),
       "No active jobs found."
     )
   })
@@ -508,45 +497,7 @@ with_mock_dir("2025.09.0", {
   test_that("search_content() can be converted to a data frame correctly", {
     content_df <- search_content(client, q = "sea bream") |>
       as_tibble()
-    expect_named(
-      content_df,
-      c(
-        "guid",
-        "name",
-        "title",
-        "description",
-        "access_type",
-        "connection_timeout",
-        "read_timeout",
-        "init_timeout",
-        "idle_timeout",
-        "max_processes",
-        "min_processes",
-        "max_conns_per_process",
-        "load_factor",
-        "created_time",
-        "last_deployed_time",
-        "bundle_id",
-        "app_mode",
-        "content_category",
-        "parameterized",
-        "cluster_name",
-        "image_name",
-        "r_version",
-        "py_version",
-        "quarto_version",
-        "run_as",
-        "run_as_current_user",
-        "owner_guid",
-        "content_url",
-        "dashboard_url",
-        "app_role",
-        "vanity_url",
-        "id",
-        "owner",
-        "tags"
-      )
-    )
+    expect_true(all(c("guid", "name", "title") %in% names(content_df)))
     expect_equal(
       content_df$title,
       c("sea bream report", "sea bream dashboard")
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-get.R b/tests/testthat/test-get.R
index b73e82a4..f9f0103d 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-get.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-get.R
@@ -249,7 +249,7 @@ test_that("get_packages() works as expected with current return value", {
       language_version = c("3.7.6", "3.7.7"),
       name = c("absl-py", "absl-py"),
       version = c("0.12.0", "0.8.1"),
-      hash = c(NA_character_, NA_character_),
+      hash = c(NA, NA),
       bundle_id = c("9375", "6623"),
       content_id = c("4906", "3652"),
       content_guid = c("9bf33774", "1935b6cb")
@@ -320,7 +320,7 @@ test_that("get_packages() works as expected with `content_guid` names in API res
       language_version = c("3.7.6", "3.7.7"),
       name = c("absl-py", "absl-py"),
       version = c("0.12.0", "0.8.1"),
-      hash = c(NA_character_, NA_character_),
+      hash = c(NA, NA),
       bundle_id = c("9375", "6623"),
       content_id = c("4906", "3652"),
       content_guid = c("9bf33774", "1935b6cb")
@@ -384,26 +384,12 @@ with_mock_dir("2025.04.0", {
     )
 
     expect_s3_class(usage, "connect_list_hits")
-    expect_s3_class(usage, "list")
+    expect_true(is.list(usage))
+    expect_equal(length(usage), 5)
+    expect_equal(usage[[1]]$id, 8966707L)
+    expect_equal(usage[[1]]$content_guid, "475618c9")
 
-    expect_length(usage, 5)
-
-    # Check first element
-    expect_equal(
-      usage[[1]],
-      list(
-        id = 8966707L,
-        user_guid = NULL,
-        content_guid = "475618c9",
-        timestamp = "2025-04-30T12:49:16.269904Z",
-        data = list(
-          path = "/hello",
-          user_agent = "Datadog/Synthetics"
-        )
-      )
-    )
-
-    # Check conversion to data.frame
+    # Check conversion to data.frame (with unnesting)
     usage_df <- as.data.frame(usage)
     expect_equal(
       usage_df,
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-parse.R b/tests/testthat/test-parse.R
index 8b3cc347..5298da49 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-parse.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-parse.R
@@ -1,51 +1,3 @@
-test_that("coerce_fsbytes fills the void", {
-  expect_s3_class(coerce_fsbytes(1L, fs::as_fs_bytes(NA_integer_)), "fs_bytes")
-  expect_s3_class(coerce_fsbytes(1, fs::as_fs_bytes(NA_integer_)), "fs_bytes")
-  expect_error(
-    coerce_fsbytes(data.frame(), fs::as_fs_bytes(NA_integer_)),
-    class = "vctrs_error_incompatible_type"
-  )
-})
-
-test_that("coerce_datetime fills the void", {
-  chardate <- "2023-10-25T17:04:08Z"
-  numdate <- as.double(Sys.time())
-  expect_s3_class(coerce_datetime(chardate, NA_datetime_), "POSIXct")
-  expect_s3_class(
-    coerce_datetime(c(chardate, chardate), NA_datetime_),
-    "POSIXct"
-  )
-  expect_s3_class(coerce_datetime(numdate, NA_datetime_), "POSIXct")
-  expect_s3_class(coerce_datetime(c(numdate, numdate), NA_datetime_), "POSIXct")
-  expect_s3_class(coerce_datetime(NA_datetime_, NA_datetime_), "POSIXct")
-  expect_s3_class(
-    coerce_datetime(c(NA_datetime_, NA_datetime_), NA_datetime_),
-    "POSIXct"
-  )
-  expect_s3_class(coerce_datetime(NA_integer_, NA_datetime_), "POSIXct")
-  expect_s3_class(
-    coerce_datetime(c(NA_integer_, NA_integer_), NA_datetime_),
-    "POSIXct"
-  )
-  expect_s3_class(coerce_datetime(NA, NA_datetime_), "POSIXct")
-  expect_s3_class(coerce_datetime(c(NA, NA), NA), "POSIXct")
-  expect_s3_class(coerce_datetime(NULL, NA), "POSIXct")
-
-  expect_error(
-    coerce_datetime(data.frame(), NA_datetime_),
-    class = "vctrs_error_incompatible_type"
-  )
-  expect_error(
-    coerce_datetime(list(), NA_datetime_, name = "list"),
-    class = "vctrs_error_incompatible_type"
-  )
-
-  expect_error(
-    coerce_datetime(NA_complex_, NA_datetime_, name = "complexity"),
-    class = "vctrs_error_incompatible_type"
-  )
-})
-
 test_that("parse_connect_rfc3339() parses timestamps with offsets as expected", {
   x_mixed <- c(
     "2023-08-22T14:13:14Z",
@@ -139,6 +91,20 @@ test_that("parse_connect_rfc3339() handles fractional seconds", {
   expect_identical(parse_connect_rfc3339(x), expected)
 })
 
+test_that("parse_connect_rfc3339() handles NA values", {
+  withr::local_envvar(TZ = "UTC")
+  result <- parse_connect_rfc3339(c("2023-08-22T14:13:14Z", NA))
+  expect_s3_class(result, "POSIXct")
+  expect_equal(length(result), 2)
+  expect_false(is.na(result[1]))
+  expect_true(is.na(result[2]))
+
+  # All NA
+  result <- parse_connect_rfc3339(c(NA_character_, NA_character_))
+  expect_s3_class(result, "POSIXct")
+  expect_true(all(is.na(result)))
+})
+
 test_that("make_timestamp produces expected output", {
   x_mixed <- c(
     "2023-08-22T14:13:14Z",
@@ -173,81 +139,81 @@ test_that("make_timestamp produces expected output", {
 
   withr::local_envvar(TZ = "America/New_York")
   expect_equal(
-    make_timestamp(coerce_datetime(x_mixed, NA_datetime_)),
+    make_timestamp(parse_connect_rfc3339(x_mixed)),
     rep(outcome, 2)
   )
   expect_equal(
-    make_timestamp(coerce_datetime(x_zero_offset, NA_datetime_)),
+    make_timestamp(parse_connect_rfc3339(x_zero_offset)),
     outcome
   )
   expect_equal(
-    make_timestamp(coerce_datetime(x_plus_one, NA_datetime_)),
+    make_timestamp(parse_connect_rfc3339(x_plus_one)),
     outcome
   )
   expect_equal(
-    make_timestamp(coerce_datetime(x_minus_one, NA_datetime_)),
+    make_timestamp(parse_connect_rfc3339(x_minus_one)),
     outcome
   )
   expect_equal(
-    make_timestamp(coerce_datetime(single_zero_offset, NA_datetime_)),
+    make_timestamp(parse_connect_rfc3339(single_zero_offset)),
     outcome[1]
   )
   expect_equal(
-    make_timestamp(coerce_datetime(single_offset, NA_datetime_)),
+    make_timestamp(parse_connect_rfc3339(single_offset)),
     outcome[1]
   )
   expect_equal(make_timestamp(outcome), outcome)
 
   withr::local_envvar(TZ = "UTC")
   expect_equal(
-    make_timestamp(coerce_datetime(x_mixed, NA_datetime_)),
+    make_timestamp(parse_connect_rfc3339(x_mixed)),
     rep(outcome, 2)
   )
   expect_equal(
-    make_timestamp(coerce_datetime(x_zero_offset, NA_datetime_)),
+    make_timestamp(parse_connect_rfc3339(x_zero_offset)),
     outcome
   )
   expect_equal(
-    make_timestamp(coerce_datetime(x_plus_one, NA_datetime_)),
+    make_timestamp(parse_connect_rfc3339(x_plus_one)),
     outcome
   )
   expect_equal(
-    make_timestamp(coerce_datetime(x_minus_one, NA_datetime_)),
+    make_timestamp(parse_connect_rfc3339(x_minus_one)),
     outcome
   )
   expect_equal(
-    make_timestamp(coerce_datetime(single_zero_offset, NA_datetime_)),
+    make_timestamp(parse_connect_rfc3339(single_zero_offset)),
     outcome[1]
   )
   expect_equal(
-    make_timestamp(coerce_datetime(single_offset, NA_datetime_)),
+    make_timestamp(parse_connect_rfc3339(single_offset)),
     outcome[1]
   )
   expect_equal(make_timestamp(outcome), outcome)
 
   withr::local_envvar(TZ = "Asia/Tokyo")
   expect_equal(
-    make_timestamp(coerce_datetime(x_mixed, NA_datetime_)),
+    make_timestamp(parse_connect_rfc3339(x_mixed)),
     rep(outcome, 2)
   )
   expect_equal(
-    make_timestamp(coerce_datetime(x_zero_offset, NA_datetime_)),
+    make_timestamp(parse_connect_rfc3339(x_zero_offset)),
     outcome
   )
   expect_equal(
-    make_timestamp(coerce_datetime(x_plus_one, NA_datetime_)),
+    make_timestamp(parse_connect_rfc3339(x_plus_one)),
     outcome
   )
   expect_equal(
-    make_timestamp(coerce_datetime(x_minus_one, NA_datetime_)),
+    make_timestamp(parse_connect_rfc3339(x_minus_one)),
     outcome
   )
   expect_equal(
-    make_timestamp(coerce_datetime(single_zero_offset, NA_datetime_)),
+    make_timestamp(parse_connect_rfc3339(single_zero_offset)),
     outcome[1]
   )
   expect_equal(
-    make_timestamp(coerce_datetime(single_offset, NA_datetime_)),
+    make_timestamp(parse_connect_rfc3339(single_offset)),
     outcome[1]
   )
   expect_equal(make_timestamp(outcome), outcome)
@@ -261,49 +227,8 @@ test_that("make_timestamp is safe for strings", {
 })
 
 test_that("make_timestamp converts to character", {
-  expect_type(make_timestamp(NA_datetime_), "character")
-})
-
-test_that("ensure_column works with lists", {
-  list_chk_null <- ensure_column(tibble::tibble(), NA_list_, "hello")
-  expect_s3_class(list_chk_null, "tbl_df")
-  expect_type(list_chk_null$hello, "list")
-
-  list_chk_same <- ensure_column(
-    tibble::tibble(hello = list(list(1, 2, 3), list(1, 2, 3, 4))),
-    NA_list_,
-    "hello"
-  )
-  expect_s3_class(list_chk_same, "tbl_df")
-  expect_type(list_chk_same$hello, "list")
-})
-
-test_that("ensure_column works with POSIXct", {
-  time_chk_null <- ensure_column(tibble::tibble(), NA_datetime_, "hello")
-  expect_s3_class(time_chk_null, "tbl_df")
-  expect_s3_class(time_chk_null$hello, "POSIXct")
-
-  time_chk_some <- ensure_column(
-    tibble::tibble(one = c(1, 2, 3)),
-    NA_datetime_,
-    "hello"
-  )
-  expect_s3_class(time_chk_some, "tbl_df")
-  expect_s3_class(time_chk_some$hello, "POSIXct")
-
-  skip("Ahh! this fails presently. Are double -> POSIXct conversions allowed?")
-  time_chk_convert <- ensure_column(
-    tibble::tibble(hello = c(1, 2, 3)),
-    NA_datetime_,
-    "hello"
-  )
-  expect_s3_class(time_chk_convert, "tbl_df")
-  expect_s3_class(time_chk_convert$hello, "POSIXct")
-})
-
-test_that("converts length one list", {
-  hm <- ensure_column(tibble::tibble(one = "hi"), NA_list_, "one")
-  expect_type(hm$one, "list")
+  ts <- .POSIXct(NA_real_, tz = Sys.timezone())
+  expect_type(make_timestamp(ts), "character")
 })
 
 test_that("parse_connectapi handles mixed null/non-null character values", {
@@ -344,3 +269,97 @@ test_that("parse_connectapi handles mixed null/non-null integer timestamps", {
   expect_type(result$end_time, "double")
   expect_identical(result$end_time, c(NA_real_, 1732556770))
 })
+
+test_that("coerce_datetime handles character (RFC 3339)", {
+  withr::local_envvar(TZ = "UTC")
+  result <- coerce_datetime(c("2023-08-22T14:13:14Z", "2020-01-01T01:02:03Z"))
+  expect_s3_class(result, "POSIXct")
+  expect_equal(length(result), 2)
+})
+
+test_that("coerce_datetime handles numeric (epoch seconds)", {
+  result <- coerce_datetime(1692713594)
+  expect_s3_class(result, "POSIXct")
+  expect_equal(as.double(result), 1692713594, tolerance = 1)
+})
+
+test_that("coerce_datetime handles POSIXct pass-through", {
+  ts <- as.POSIXct("2023-08-22 14:13:14", tz = "UTC")
+  result <- coerce_datetime(ts)
+  expect_identical(result, ts)
+})
+
+test_that("coerce_datetime handles NULL", {
+  result <- coerce_datetime(NULL)
+  expect_s3_class(result, "POSIXct")
+  expect_equal(length(result), 0)
+})
+
+test_that("coerce_datetime handles all-NA logical", {
+  result <- coerce_datetime(c(NA, NA))
+  expect_s3_class(result, "POSIXct")
+  expect_true(all(is.na(result)))
+  expect_equal(length(result), 2)
+})
+
+test_that("coerce_datetime rejects unsupported types", {
+  expect_error(coerce_datetime(data.frame()), "Cannot coerce")
+  expect_error(coerce_datetime(NA_complex_), "Cannot coerce")
+})
+
+test_that("parse_connectapi_typed converts specified datetime columns", {
+  data <- list(
+    list(guid = "aaa", created_time = "2023-08-22T14:13:14Z"),
+    list(guid = "bbb", created_time = "2020-01-01T01:02:03Z")
+  )
+
+  result <- parse_connectapi_typed(data, datetime_cols = "created_time")
+  expect_s3_class(result, "tbl_df")
+  expect_s3_class(result$created_time, "POSIXct")
+  expect_type(result$guid, "character")
+})
+
+test_that("parse_connectapi_typed leaves columns alone without datetime_cols", {
+  data <- list(
+    list(guid = "aaa", created_time = "2023-08-22T14:13:14Z"),
+    list(guid = "bbb", created_time = "2020-01-01T01:02:03Z")
+  )
+
+  result <- parse_connectapi_typed(data)
+  expect_s3_class(result, "tbl_df")
+  # Without datetime_cols, timestamps stay as character
+  expect_type(result$created_time, "character")
+})
+
+test_that("parse_connectapi_typed handles data frame input (fast path)", {
+  df <- data.frame(
+    guid = c("aaa", "bbb"),
+    created_time = c("2023-08-22T14:13:14Z", "2020-01-01T01:02:03Z"),
+    stringsAsFactors = FALSE
+  )
+
+  result <- parse_connectapi_typed(df, datetime_cols = "created_time")
+  expect_s3_class(result, "tbl_df")
+  expect_s3_class(result$created_time, "POSIXct")
+})
+
+test_that("parse_connectapi_typed handles empty input", {
+  result <- parse_connectapi_typed(list())
+  expect_s3_class(result, "tbl_df")
+  expect_equal(nrow(result), 0)
+
+  result <- parse_connectapi_typed(tibble::tibble())
+  expect_s3_class(result, "tbl_df")
+  expect_equal(nrow(result), 0)
+})
+
+test_that("parse_connectapi_typed handles all-NA datetime column", {
+  data <- list(
+    list(guid = "aaa", active_time = NULL),
+    list(guid = "bbb", active_time = NULL)
+  )
+
+  result <- parse_connectapi_typed(data, datetime_cols = "active_time")
+  expect_s3_class(result$active_time, "POSIXct")
+  expect_true(all(is.na(result$active_time)))
+})

From 400a8628ffb0597843a550dfece005d3fc794b34 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Kara Woo <kara.woo@posit.co>
Date: Thu, 5 Mar 2026 11:59:50 -0800
Subject: [PATCH 3/4] improve performance for page_cursor

---
 R/page.R                   | 26 +++++++++++----
 tests/testthat/test-page.R | 67 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 87 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/R/page.R b/R/page.R
index 8808c25b..9aa5cf28 100644
--- a/R/page.R
+++ b/R/page.R
@@ -24,20 +24,34 @@ page_cursor <- function(client, req, limit = Inf) {
   prg$tick()
   response <- req
 
-  # collect whole pages, then flatten once at the end
-  pages <- list(response$results)
-  n_items <- length(response$results)
+  # Convert the first page (list-of-lists from simplify=FALSE) to a data frame.
+  # Subsequent pages use simplify=TRUE so jsonlite builds data frames in C,
+  # which is significantly faster for high-volume endpoints.
+  first_results <- response$results
+  if (length(first_results) > 0 && !is.data.frame(first_results)) {
+    first_results <- parse_connectapi(first_results)
+  }
+
+  pages <- list(first_results)
+  n_items <- if (is.data.frame(first_results)) nrow(first_results) else length(first_results)
+
   while (!is.null(response$paging$`next`) && n_items < limit) {
     prg$tick()
 
     next_url <- response$paging$`next`
-    response <- client$GET(url = next_url)
+    response <- client$GET(url = next_url, simplify = TRUE)
 
     pages[[length(pages) + 1L]] <- response$results
-    n_items <- n_items + length(response$results)
+    n_items <- n_items + nrow(response$results)
+  }
+
+  if (length(pages) == 1L && !is.data.frame(pages[[1L]])) {
+    # Single empty page — return as-is for downstream handling
+    return(pages[[1L]])
   }
 
-  head(do.call(c, pages), n = limit)
+  out <- vctrs::vec_rbind(!!!pages)
+  head(out, n = limit)
 }
 # TODO: Decide if this `limit = Inf` is helpful or a hack...
 #       it is essentially a "row limit" on paging
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-page.R b/tests/testthat/test-page.R
index 1638dbb0..5e002831 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-page.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-page.R
@@ -14,3 +14,70 @@ with_mock_dir("2025.09.0", {
     )
   })
 })
+
+test_that("page_cursor accumulates data frames from multiple pages", {
+  # Simulate a two-page cursor-paginated response. The first page comes from
+  # the caller with simplify=FALSE (list-of-lists), while page_cursor fetches
+  # subsequent pages with simplify=TRUE (data frames).
+  mock_client <- list(
+    GET = function(url, ..., simplify = FALSE) {
+      list(
+        results = data.frame(id = 3:4, name = c("c", "d")),
+        paging = list(`next` = NULL)
+      )
+    }
+  )
+
+  initial_response <- list(
+    results = list(
+      list(id = 1L, name = "a"),
+      list(id = 2L, name = "b")
+    ),
+    paging = list(`next` = "https://connect.example/__api__/v1/things?next=abc")
+  )
+
+  res <- page_cursor(mock_client, initial_response)
+  expect_s3_class(res, "data.frame")
+  expect_equal(nrow(res), 4)
+  expect_equal(res$id, 1:4)
+  expect_equal(res$name, c("a", "b", "c", "d"))
+})
+
+test_that("page_cursor returns empty list for empty single page", {
+  mock_client <- list(GET = function(...) stop("should not be called"))
+
+  initial_response <- list(
+    results = list(),
+    paging = list(`next` = NULL)
+  )
+
+  res <- page_cursor(mock_client, initial_response)
+  expect_equal(length(res), 0)
+})
+
+test_that("page_cursor respects limit", {
+  call_count <- 0L
+  mock_client <- list(
+    GET = function(url, ..., simplify = FALSE) {
+      call_count <<- call_count + 1L
+      list(
+        results = data.frame(id = 3:4, name = c("c", "d")),
+        paging = list(`next` = "https://connect.example/__api__/v1/things?next=more")
+      )
+    }
+  )
+
+  initial_response <- list(
+    results = list(
+      list(id = 1L, name = "a"),
+      list(id = 2L, name = "b")
+    ),
+    paging = list(`next` = "https://connect.example/__api__/v1/things?next=abc")
+  )
+
+  res <- page_cursor(mock_client, initial_response, limit = 3)
+  expect_s3_class(res, "data.frame")
+  expect_equal(nrow(res), 3)
+  # Only fetched one additional page since we hit the limit
+  expect_equal(call_count, 1L)
+})

From 25349d8be6b6be66dc42d8db419919522386c8af Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Kara Woo <kara.woo@posit.co>
Date: Thu, 5 Mar 2026 14:47:19 -0800
Subject: [PATCH 4/4] keep columns even if missing from all responses

---
 R/content.R | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/R/content.R b/R/content.R
index df7d23c8..be2ada0a 100644
--- a/R/content.R
+++ b/R/content.R
@@ -860,7 +860,7 @@ terminate_jobs <- function(content, keys = NULL) {
   # Keep only the columns relevant to job termination; the API response
   # includes extra fields (e.g. payload, guid) on error that vary by outcome.
   keep <- c("app_id", "app_guid", "job_key", "job_id", "result", "code", "error")
-  res_df[, intersect(keep, names(res_df)), drop = FALSE]
+  res_df[, keep, drop = FALSE]
 }
 
 #' @rdname get_jobs