v0.4.17

Core validator

• Version floor consistency fixed: declared newer VAST versions no longer raise false VAST-2.0-version-mismatch warnings when the XML only uses older structural features.
• Malformed XML short-circuits cleanly: parse failures now emit VAST-2.0-parse-error without cascading required-field noise.

Packaging / release

• Channel versions aligned: bumped the Rust crates, npm package, VS Code extension, Chrome extension, lockfiles, and tracked generated package metadata to 0.4.17.
• Packaged runtime sanity-covered: the npm runtime smoke path now validates the built package against the shared fixture corpus before release tagging.

Tests

• Corpus expanded: added malformed XML, wrapper-heavy, and mixed vendor pod fixtures plus directory-wide fixture sweeps to reduce regression gaps before release.