Add the working vCenter placement-check pattern to the ATVM automation guide so explicit VM-list planning uses the correct lowercase govc JSON keys, resolves datastore refs to names, and ignores helper datastores such as install ISO attachments when deciding between gold and gold-2.
Adjust parent-run summary parsing so the watcher does not stop at the "Recorded Run" detection log line and miss later host rows in Mattermost status output.
Document the 2026-04-15 failure mode in ATVM run learnings so future watcher/reporting work preserves the broader Cloud Run Finished block parsing rule.
- skip report artifacts that disappear during watcher post-processing
- use safe mtime handling for XML and mochawesome discovery
- prevent watcher crashes from transient FileNotFoundError races
- map AutomatedTest-VMBootImg-Gold to gold and Gold-2 to gold-2
- require live vCenter placement checks for explicit VM lists
- stop mixed gold/gold-2 requests before planning ATVM runs
- return hostname-only datastore inventories by default
- tell the operator about the vCenter placement check before showing run commands
- clarify that repo inventory files are not the source of truth for current datastore membership
- update the ATVM automation guide to make watcher-first launch order explicit whenever the watcher is approved
- update the ATVM AGENTS rules so the runner is never started before the watcher for watcher-backed runs
- add a 2026-03-27 run learning documenting that the watcher helper can delete the live runner log if the runner starts first
- update the non-categorized watcher path to fall back to the parent Cloud Run Finished summary when only the final check-xml-files reporter XML is available
- prevent single-host runs from being marked TERMINATED without host results when the controller log already contains the real host outcome
- allow the watcher to populate host results and post Mattermost successfully for completed single-host runs with reused build names
