This study analyzes the patterns of coordination of a set of policy instruments promoted by Brazil's National Adaptation Plan as a means of fostering climate adaptation in the rural areas of the country's semiarid region. It combines institutional data and semi-structured interviews with policymakers to elucidate the process of implementation of these instruments, with a focus on the enabling factors and (missing) connections in the policy mix. Coordination gaps between the enabling instruments and climate adaptation instruments, caused by institutional and political factors, resulted in implementation issues and a policy mix inclined to promote social vulnerability goals rather than sustainable production and climate risk management. The analysis provides insights into the challenges of achieving a coherent policy framework. It also contributes to the policy mix literature by defining criteria for a typology of interactions between policy instruments and by unpacking the functional ties of instruments in the policy mix.Key policy insights Policy coordination is a political rather than technical process.The policy mix includes climate adaptation instruments, enabling instruments, and complementary instruments, each of which play different functional roles. Both formal and informal mechanisms connect policy instruments.A policy mix analysis must be specific to both context and time. A network analysis of instrument interactions can provide methods and comparative outlooks that are more robust.Implementation gaps between the enabling instruments and climate adaptation instruments influence the resulting policy mix, which tends to promote achievement of social vulnerability goals rather than sustainable production and climate risk management.