AirStack 0.20.0

• Pre-release versioning terminology: -alpha.N → -dev.N. The
  development line on develop now uses X.Y.Z-dev.N pre-release versions
  (first: 0.21.0-dev.0) instead of X.Y.Z-alpha.N. The
  check-version-increment PR gate accepts exactly dev, beta, rc
  (ordering dev < beta < rc < release); the main→develop sync workflow
  rolls develop forward to the next minor's -dev.0 after a release. Docs,
  skills, and the PR template were updated to match. Existing -alpha.N
  versions in git history and in declared module-compat ranges remain valid
  historical references.

• Single, revamped repo README. The repo now has one README.md (at the
  root — docs/README.md was removed), rewritten around the redesigned docs
  home page: quickstart, one-command bring-up, sim-to-real parity, CI flight
  campaigns, and agent-driven workflows.

• Module-catalog sync automation + drift alarm. Registering a module is
  two merges (registry PR to
  airstack-modules-index

  • trunk fixture/catalog sync), and the docs deploy regenerates the
    published catalog from the live registry — so a missed half used to
    drop the module from the site silently. Now the develop docs deploy
    raises a docs-catalog-drift issue whenever the committed catalog and
    the live registry disagree, and the new sync-modules-index workflow
    (daily + manual dispatch) opens the trunk sync PR automatically
    (.github/workflows/scripts/registry_sync.py).

• Trustworthy system-test outcomes. A red system-tests run now always
  means the code under test got worse, never that CI infrastructure hiccuped:
  run_meta.json (schema v2) classifies every failure as
  assertion / infrastructure / collection / ci_integrity, and CI fails
  only on those — comparable numeric metric deltas (Hz, CPU, error metrics)
  are advisory in the report and no longer fail the PR. Metric
  comparisons only happen between fingerprint-identical campaigns (same
  tests and same behavior-changing CLI config: sim, robot count,
  trajectories, velocities, tolerances), with the baseline selected from
  recent base-branch artifacts by fingerprint instead of "newest artifact of
  any shape". Bring-up/readiness failures fail fast when the simulator
  process dies (instead of burning the full /clock timeout on an ephemeral
  GPU pod) and capture a bounded, secret-free diagnostics/ bundle before
  the pod is destroyed. Maintainers can dispatch focused flight campaigns
  (trajectory_types, takeoff_velocities) from workflow_dispatch. New
  airstack up --config-only: dry-run restricted to logical launch-config
  contracts (no Docker/credentials/image/submodule prerequisites).

• CI un-redded: Metrics Report and Unit Tests fixed. Every PR had been
  failing since ~2026-08-20 for reasons unrelated to the code under test.
  The system-tests Metrics Report job installed only tabulate, so
  tests/parse_metrics.py (which imports the tests/harness package)
  crashed with ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'yaml' — and the crash
  was misreported as "Metric regression detected"; the job now installs
  tests/requirements.txt, and the regression verdict additionally requires
  a written report.md so a parser crash can never masquerade as a metric
  regression. The Unit Tests workflow ran the tests/meta/ contract
  suite on a checkout with no submodules and no omni_pass.env, so every
  airstack up --dry-run --sim isaac contract hard-failed preflight and the
  docs-catalog contract missed the submodule-resident vdb_mapping_ros2
  README; the workflow now checks out submodules recursively and provisions
  the same guest omni_pass.env stub that module-system-tests.yml uses
  (preflight itself stays strict).

• New reference stack full_mighty + registered mighty module. The
  MIGHTY Hermite-spline local planner (MIT ACL, RA-L 2026) with its
  acl-mapping voxel world model and a NavigateTask/trajectory_controller
  bridge, packaged as the external
  asm_mighty module (pinned at
  v0.1.1 in the stack's modules.repos; repo private until the AirStack
  agent study concludes). full_mighty
  is full_default with only the local-planner include swapped — the
  module-swap demonstration for the modular architecture. Registered in the
  module catalog; validated on Isaac Sim (44/44
  vendored gtests, empty-world route flight, 7/7 pillar-field traversals,
  5/5 judged obstacle-route flights at 1.59–1.65 m min clearance vs a 1.0 m
  gate).

• Fixed: the docs search dropdown rendered behind the nav-tabs bar and the
  version-selector text (custom z-indexes inside the header's stacking
  context); the search subtree is now lifted above both.

Documentation overhaul (Diátaxis restructuring). The docs site was
audited against the Diátaxis framework and
reorganized; page URLs are preserved (moves are covered by redirects):

• The nav is now organized by document kind — Tutorials / How-to Guides /
  Reference / Concepts tabs — replacing the difficulty-tier
  ("Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced Tutorials") buckets, which contained no
  tutorials. The doc-authoring standards (Documentation Guide, mkdocs
  skills) now prescribe the quadrant taxonomy and include a decision tree.
• 18 verified doc/code mismatches fixed, including: a phantom
  --recreate flag and missing --scene in the CLI reference; phantom
  ROBOT_LAUNCH_PACKAGE/ROBOT_LAUNCH_FILE env vars (real: LAUNCH_PACKAGE);
  nonexistent airstack_msgs/TrajectorySegment/TrajectoryOverride types in
  doc templates (real: TrajectoryXYZVYaw); the MS-AirSim tmux window
  ordering (bridges launch before PX4) and MAVLink port math; the Getting
  Started Foxglove step (layout now auto-seeds; manual import retired).
• Removed superseded pages with redirects: the Ascent-era scene-setup pair,
  the pre-harness testing-frameworks page, the orphaned tutorials index and
  two stale duplicate pages (development_environment, airstack-cli index).
  The git-hooks docker-versioning READMEs are now deprecation notices — the
  hook they described conflicts with the semver check-version-increment
  gate (note: airstack config git-hooks still installs it; CLI removal is
  a follow-up).
• Pages that documented never-built or fabricated behavior were rewritten
  from the code: global planning (the unimplemented Global-Manager/
  PlanRequest protocol is gone), the robot interface page (state flows via
  odometry_conversion), robot configuration, HITL (now uses the
  gcs-real hitl profile and Foxglove verification), rosbags, and the
  robot-side data-offloading page (now points at the storage-tools
  workflow).
• Hybrid pages split by audience: system_architecture.md (explanation
  core; drifted topic tables replaced with links into the interface
  conventions spec), CI/CD (new Using CI how-to), GCS Foxglove (new
  Extending the Visualizer), Isaac Sim docker (new Container
  Workflows). Duplicated hot tables (topics, CLI flags, pytest marks,
  requirements) now live in one canonical home each.
• Previously off-site references added to the nav: the vehicle.yaml and
  module.yaml schemas, local calibration contract, the RViz tasks/waypoint
  panel manuals, the LiDAR point-cloud filter README, and the OSMO lab-admin
  guide. New reference pages: the complete .env schema, the
  airstack_msgs interface reference, the trajectory-library YAML format,
  and a supported-platform matrix. New/rewritten onboarding: Deploying to
  Hardware and Operating the GCS.
• The Interface Conventions Specification was bumped to v1.0.1: §8 now
  lists all eight task_msgs actions (added tasks/coverage and
  tasks/chat, both defined with no shipped executor).
• Six new how-to guides: Adding a State Estimator, Adding a Planner,
  Creating a Multi-Agent Coordination Algorithm (grouped under a new
  How-to → Autonomy section), Creating a Custom Stack Topology, Adding a
  Vehicle Type/Unit/Platform, and Getting the Most out of Your Coding
  Agent (the feature-notebook workflow). Each presents the in-tree
  package vs airstack module create --in-tree module-scaffolding
  choice. The Concepts tab now sits directly after Tutorials, and the
  UE→Isaac export tutorial was refreshed (new walkthrough video, export
  as Z-up in meters, note that UE Decals — paint markings, dirt,
  puddles — do not export).
• Five new beginner tutorials completing the learning path: Fly a Mission
  from the GCS, Change a Parameter (the edit→relaunch loop; config YAML is
  symlink-installed from the bind-mounted source, so no rebuild), Write
  Your First Module (airstack module create --in-tree scaffold, with a
  fix-it note for the scaffold's double-namespace stub), Your First Fleet
  (two-robot fleet file, per-robot Foxglove tabs), and Build and Fly Your
  Own Scene (GUI stage → scene catalog → --scene flight → baked
  *.scene.usd). New how-to: Adding a Controller (verified
  trajectory_controller → pid_controller → interface command chain);
  Adding a Planner expanded into Adding a World Model and Planner
  (local world-model/planner matched pairs vs the spec'd global map
  interchange).

This release restructures AirStack from a monolith into modules,
stacks, and fleets, implementing
RFC #379 (Modular AirStack)
scales 1–2 of
RFC #380 (Heterogeneous AirStack),
and the stack-folder anatomy of
RFC #385 (Directory Atlas).
Feature docs deliberately cite none of these — the design sources live here:

• Modules are thin external repos with a small module.yaml, pulled on
  demand: airstack module add <url> --version <pin>. Three capabilities
  were extracted from trunk into new repos:
  asm_macvo (with its torch/TensorRT
  stack moved out of the base robot image — 17.1 GB → ~6 GB, −65%),
  asm_optitrack (including the
  Isaac Sim NatNet emulator), and
  asm_dfm2_disturbances.
  The registry lives at
  castacks/airstack-modules-index.
• Stacks (stacks/) are self-contained topology folders — pinned
  modules.repos, plain XML entry launch files, and a CI-observed
  wiring.md graph baseline. Wiring that used to be spread across per-layer
  *_bringup packages (local_bringup, onboard_all, and the
  local*.launch.xml variant files) now lives in one place: the selected
  stack's entry launch file.
• Module provenance: asm_dfm2_disturbances originates from the DFM2
  ("don't fool me twice") AirStack fork, hand-built as the pilot module
  before the tooling existed (its FRICTION_LOG.md records every manual
  step; the port drops omni.isaac.dynamic_control in favor of the PhysX
  simulation interface). asm_optitrack was extracted from the trunk
  OptiTrack PR series (#359/#374/#375/#376) with git history preserved; its
  unit/integration/e2e tests run in the module's own CI.
• Fleets (config/fleets/) declare who exists, which vehicle, which
  stack, and which ground hosts run split-stack halves:
  airstack up --fleet <name>.

Launch-path changes (breaking)

• AUTONOMY_ROLE is removed. The env-var role dispatch
  (full/onboard/offboard) is gone; a set AUTONOMY_ROLE is a preflight
  hard error (as is setting it alongside --stack, which previously let the
  stack silently win). Stacks are the only dispatch: airstack up --stack <name>[:<entry>], defaulting to full_default. The per-role launch trees
  (onboard_all/, onboard_local_offboard_global/) are deleted, the
  wrap-then-flatten migration is complete (every reference stack composes
  flat module-launch includes; the launch-lint allowlist is down to the two
  deliberately wrapped blocks: interface.launch.py and the DDS-router/
  gossip helpers). Migration map:

  Before	Now
  no role set / AUTONOMY_ROLE=full	full_default (default; machine-proven graph-identical)
  full + local_droan_cpu.launch.xml variant	--stack full_droan_cpu (variant file deleted; wiring captured from it before deletion)
  local_macvo_obstacle_avoidance.launch.xml variant	--stack full_macvo — the variant was broken three ways (unprefixed args silently ignored, stale disparity topic, launch_macvo never enabled); the stack fixes all three
  AUTONOMY_ROLE=onboard (no split)	--stack lite_default (on the desktop profile the onboard role was unreachable anyway — robot-desktop hardcoded full)
  onboard/offboard split pair	--stack lite_offload_global:onboard / :offboard

• The split onboard/offboard deployment is now the lite_offload_global
  stack (:onboard / :offboard entries) bridged per its bridge.yaml;
  the DDS-router config is generated by tools/gen_dds_router.py rather
  than hand-maintained. The generated bridge deliberately drops the legacy
  split's set_trajectory_mode crossing (control-mode topics may not cross
  a bridge — airstack doctor hard gate).

• Module launch files are remap-free and declare prefixed, described
  arguments with canonical defaults; generically named arguments (like
  config_file) were renamed with per-module prefixes because ROS 2 launch
  configurations are global across includes.

• Shared DDS-router configs moved out of the per-role onboard_all/ tree up
  to autonomy_bringup/config/.

• OptiTrack activation changed: trunk's
  overrides/isaac-optitrack-simulation.env and the LAUNCH_NATNET toggle
  are gone (a set LAUNCH_NATNET draws a preflight warning). Mocap is
  brought up by a stack that includes natnet_ros2 unconditionally — the
  asm_optitrack module's test_stack/ is the reference.

• SKIP_MACVO / SKIP_TENSORRT build args removed from Dockerfile.robot
  along with the payload they gated; MAC-VO deps enter an image only via
  airstack module lock --build. stacks/full_macvo includes the module's
  own macvo.launch.xml (the in-tree perception/macvo_ros2 copy is
  deleted; the module preserves its git history, and fixes the previously
  hardcoded camera_info subscription to honor its topic parameter).

Added

• airstack up --stack <name>[:<entry>] stack dispatch with 5 reference
  stacks under stacks/ (full_default, full_droan_cpu, full_macvo,
  lite_default, lite_offload_global), each carrying pinned
  modules.repos and a CI-observed wiring.md graph baseline
• Module CLI — airstack module add <url> --version <tag|sha> (branches
  refused; local paths allowed), list|sync|remove|create --in-tree|doctor,
  workspace overlay of module packages, and auto-generated module compose
  overrides included by airstack up; Docker module layers composed via
  modules.lock (airstack module lock --build)
• Fleet system: airstack up --fleet <name> driven by
  config/fleets/*.yaml (identity, vehicle from config/vehicles/, stack
  selection, spawns) with hosts: split-stack placement onto ground hosts;
  airstack fleet list|generate per-robot compose for heterogeneous fleets;
  airstack sync reconciles airstack.yaml (modules, external stack repos,
  fleet validation)
• airstack doctor [--live|--snapshot] [--stack NAME] — observe-and-report
  checks with exactly two hard gates (module dependency-conflict gate;
  bridge gate: no control-setpoint / trajectory-group topics may cross a
  split-stack bridge); --live diffs the RUNNING ROS graph against the
  stack's committed wiring.md
• airstack stack list|new <src> <dst>|diff <a> <b> (diff compares
  generated wiring, not launch XML)
• tests/meta/ contract-test tier (unit mark) pinning the CLI/docs/stack
  contracts, plus the wiring system-test mark: an observed wiring snapshot
  of the running graph drift-checked against the stack's committed
  stacks/<name>/wiring.md
• Split-stack bridging: stacks/lite_offload_global/bridge.yaml explicitly
  lists every boundary crossing and tools/gen_dds_router.py generates the
  DDS-router config from it deterministically (--check enforces the bridge
  hard gate)
• New docs: Modules, Stacks, Fleets, Module CI guides, the generated
  Module & Stack Catalog marketplace, and the Modular AirStack Walkthrough
• Intent flags on airstack up — --sim isaac|airsim|simple, --robots N,
  --headless, --play/--no-play, --no-autolaunch, --wait,
  --dry-run — deriving the coordinated env-var sets as exported leaf
  values, with a resolved-config banner and a per-run
  .airstack/runs/<ts>/effective_config.env dump; contract-tested
• airstack up --scene <shortname>: simulator-agnostic scene selection via
  a new catalog (simulation/scenes.yaml, resolved host-side by
  simulation/resolve_scene.py). Isaac maps shortnames to Pegasus catalog
  keys or Nucleus USD URLs (exported as ISAAC_SIM_SCENE +
  ISAAC_SIM_STAGE_SCALE; the example launch scripts and fleet_spawn.py
  now resolve their scene from these instead of hardcoding env_url);
  MS AirSim maps to fetch_scene.sh keys (MS_AIRSIM_SCENE — the
  entrypoint's auto-fetch, previously Blocks-only, now fetches any catalog
  scene, and an interactive airstack up asks before a multi-GB download).
  The fetch_scene.sh catalog was corrected to the UE4 binaries that
  actually exist in the AirSim v1.8.1 release: forest, soccerfield, and
  building99 were removed (their zips were never published, or are empty),
  airsimnh now downloads AirSimNH.zip (was the nonexistent
  Neighborhood.zip), and africasavannah / msbuild2018 were added; the
  entrypoint resolves the UE launcher by glob after extraction, so zips whose
  inner .sh doesn't match the folder name still boot.
  Unknown scene = error + per-simulator availability table. Five stages were
  published to the guest-readable
  omniverse://airlab-nucleus.andrew.cmu.edu:443/Public/AirStack/Stages/
  (AbandonedFactory, AbandonedWarehouse day/night, ChemicalPlant,
  ConstructionSite, RetroNeighborhood) and cataloged with per-stage scale.
  See Simulation Scenes
• airstack ready (and airstack up --wait): staged flight-readiness gates
  mirroring the system-test budgets — containers → sim /clock → per-robot
  sentinel nodes → PX4 MAVROS-connected + local_position/odom streaming —
  with per-gate diagnostics and --json for scripts
• Preflight validation in airstack up on resolved configuration (env >
  --env-file > .env): one-simulator guard, NUM_ROBOTS>1 vs
  single-drone Isaac script as a named hard error, missing images listed
  with an image-pull hint, missing omni_pass.env / empty Pegasus
  submodule / Docker < 29 surfaced on the host
  (AIRSTACK_SKIP_PREFLIGHT=1 downgrades errors to warnings)
• tmux pane output mirrored to container stdout via shared .tmux.conf
  hooks, so docker logs / airstack logs show colcon builds,
  ros2 launch output, sim loading, and crashes
• simple-sim as a first-class simulator: airstack up --sim simple and a
  simple_sim smoke-test mark (it had been broken since the ROS Jazzy
  migration — its container sourced a Humble path — and is fixed)
• Automatic unit-tests.yml PR gate on ubuntu-latest, plus
  run_meta.json outcome metadata so reports distinguish completed
  simulation campaigns from collection errors, empty selections, timeouts,
  and cancellations
• Feature notebook workflow (use-feature-notebook skill): gitignored
  notebook/NNN-feature-slug/ entries whose design_spec.md and
  results_summary.md populate feature PR descriptions
• Battery and telemetry display in the GCS control panel (voltage and
  percentage per robot when the MAVROS battery topic is bridged)
• TARGET_ARCH build arg (default x86_64) in Dockerfile.robot;
  docker-compose.yaml passes TARGET_ARCH: aarch64 to the voxl and
  l4t real-robot image builds
• ros-${ROS_DISTRO}-mavros-extras in the robot image (provides the
  vision_pose plugin used for external-pose deployments)
• overrides/l4t-px4-realrobot.env — site-agnostic deployment override for
  a single real PX4 robot on a Jetson (aarch64/l4t)
• integration test tier (tests/integration/, integration mark) with a
  shared robot_autonomy_stack fixture (robot container, no sim/GPU)
• waypoint_flight system test: takeoff → ordered waypoint route via
  NavigateTask → land, judged on the odometry track by the standalone
  tests/waypoint_checker.py; the standard acceptance check after
  integrating or swapping a planner module
• Foxglove auto-loaded layout: render_layout.py seeds the rendered
  NUM_ROBOTS-matched layout directly into the Foxglove desktop app's
  local layout store and gcs.launch.xml selects it via the layoutId
  deep link, so Foxglove opens on the right layout with no manual
  Import from file... step; user-saved edits are hash-detected and
  never overwritten (delete the layout in the UI to reset). Requires the
  pinned Foxglove version — see Changed

Changed

• The simulator now starts playing by default: PLAY_SIM_ON_START
  defaults to true in .env (was false). Pass airstack up --no-play
  to come up paused and press Play yourself; --play remains available as
  an explicit override
• Container autolaunch (robot desktop/voxl/l4t and GCS) now runs through an
  autolaunch shell helper instead of a bare bws && sws && ros2 launch
  chain: a build failure or launch crash prints an unmissable red
  "AUTOLAUNCH FAILED" banner in the tmux pane (mirrored to docker logs /
  airstack logs) instead of silently returning to a prompt with the stack
  down
• Dockerfile.gcs pins the Foxglove desktop version (FOXGLOVE_VERSION
  build arg, currently 3.0.0) instead of installing latest, since the
  layout auto-load writes the app's on-disk local-layout record format
  directly (verified against 3.0.0; re-verify before bumping the pin)
• robot-desktop image slimmed 17.1 GB → ~6 GB (−65%) by moving MACVO's
  torch/TensorRT/weights into the asm_macvo module Docker layer; a further
  dependency purge removed unused apt/pip packages (−152 MB) and droan_gl's
  GL dependencies are declared explicitly
• Isaac launch scripts deduplicated onto a shared pegasus_app.PegasusApp
  base: the scripts become scenario declarations (~40–170 lines each, net
  −438 lines) with hooks for NatNet/scene-import extras; behavior verified
  by full system-test parity. ISAAC_SIM_HEADLESS and
  ISAAC_SIM_LIVESTREAM work uniformly in every launch script (each was
  honored by only half of them before)
• Launch-workflow docs corrected against actual behavior: ISAAC_SIM_SCENE
  (nonexistent) replaced by ISAAC_SIM_SCRIPT_NAME/ISAAC_SIM_GUI,
  getting-started reflects the paused-by-default sim and Foxglove UI, isaac
  docker.md defaults match .env, ms-airsim MAVROS ports/FOV/vehicle naming
  fixed
• Unit-test documentation matches the co-located layout: C++ gtests run via
  colcon test under the build_packages mark; Python via the root harness
  (conftest.py applies the unit mark by file location)
• The CI orchestrator polls a repos: list (one instance covers trunk and
  every asm_* module repo; the singular repo: key still works) — module CI
  jobs on airstack-ephemeral no longer need per-repo orchestrator instances
• Ephemeral CI GPU runners spawn via NVIDIA OSMO as a drop-in replacement
  for the earlier OpenStack-Nova backend: the GitHub side (labels, JIT
  tokens, fork guard) is unchanged; only the spawn target moved. The OSMO
  service-account token plays the old application-credential role,
  osmo workflow exec replaces SSH-via-floating-IP debugging, and the
  runner image prebakes what cloud-init used to install at boot
• Pegasus launch scripts drive lidar through the RTX OmniLidar API
  (add_rtx_lidar_subgraph) in place of the Ouster graph path, with ROS
  topics reconciled (raw cloud on …/sensors/ouster/point_cloud_raw,
  filtered on …/sensors/ouster/point_cloud)
• The airstack-osmo SSH config block for OSMO IDE sessions is
  StrictHostKeyChecking no + UserKnownHostsFile /dev/null (replacing
  accept-new); users with the earlier block should replace it and run
  ssh-keygen -R "[localhost]:2200" once
• Default system-test --sim is isaacsim; pass --sim msairsim to opt in
• -m build_packages CI runs pull cache_* images instead of baking sim
  images; docker-build.yml retags unchanged images on VERSION bumps
  (content fingerprint) instead of always rebuilding
• Automatic OSMO validation runs the pull-only build_packages gate on
  every PR update; GPU simulation campaigns are selected through /pytest
  or workflow_dispatch
• robot-l4t compose service knobs are env-overridable (FCU_URL, rosbag
  path via BAG_STORAGE_PATH); FCU_URL unquoted so the literal serial
  path reaches MAVROS
• zed-l4t image: ZED SDK 4.2 → 5.2 with coupled ROS deps (zed_msgs
  5.2.1, point_cloud_transport(_plugins) 4.x, backward_ros)
• Unit tests are defined by tests/colcon_unit_test_packages.yaml
• Repo-wide relicense to BSD 3-Clause Clear (vendored packages keep
  their upstream licenses); airstack_msgs stabilized at 1.0.0; every
  package.xml carries a real maintainer and description (contract-tested)
• DOCKER_IMAGE_BUILD_MODE=prebuilt is a tag discriminator only; a real
  prebuilt-workspace image stage is future work
• The repository CHANGELOG.md is removed in favor of this page — all
  change records live here, per version
• Docs policy: standalone snapshots. Feature docs describe only the
  current system; all change-relative language (including RFC citations)
  coalesces here. A full docs audit applied the policy and corrected pages
  that had drifted from the code, notably: bag recording is NOT
  auto-triggered at takeoff (the recorder starts idle; toggle via
  /{robot_name}/bag_record/set_recording_status); tracking_point /
  look_ahead carry airstack_msgs/msg/Odometry (older docs said
  geometry_msgs/PointStamped) and trajectory topics are
  airstack_msgs/TrajectoryXYZVYaw; MAVROSInterface targets any
  MAVLink-compatible FC (the documented Ascent/Ardupilot specificity does
  not exist in code); the RobotInterface command topic is cmd_pose; the
  DDS-router allowlist table is regenerated from the real config; the
  Jetson install flow is ./airstack.sh setup + the robot-l4t service.
  Two orphaned pages documenting the behavior-tree framework
  (behavior_tree, behavior_executive — packages removed in an earlier
  release, PR #332; only behavior_tree_msgs remains) were deleted; the
  behavior layer is drone_safety_monitor with mission sequencing via
  GCS-sent task goals

Removed

An audit removed dead or superseded code wholesale. Anything here is
recoverable from git history, and hardware-specific capabilities return as
out-of-trunk modules:

• The AUTONOMY_ROLE launch dispatch and its per-role launch trees —
  stacks are the only launch path
• MACVO extracted to castacks/asm_macvo;
  OptiTrack/NatNet extracted to
  castacks/asm_optitrack
  (client, PX4 external-vision fusion, NatNet emulator + Isaac wrapper,
  e2e/integration tests, env overrides)
• px4_interface + vendored px4_msgs — a native PX4 uXRCE-DDS interface
  is tracked as a fresh design in
  #387; MAVROS remains
  the flight interface
• waypoint_interface, attitude_controller(+_msgs) — dead code
• The RQT/RViz GUI set: rviz_behavior_tree_panel (with the xdot_cpp
  submodule), rqt_behavior_tree_command, rqt_behavior_tree, rqt_gcs,
  rqt_airstack_control_panel — Foxglove is the GCS surface
• Sensors-layer hardware packages camera_param_server,
  gimbal_stabilizer, sensor_interfaces
  (lidar_point_cloud_filter remains)
• WinTAK / TAK integration (ros2tak_tools, CLI plumbing, GCS image
  dependencies) — can return as a module
• Isaac Sim standalone_examples copies, stale robot-docker helpers, the
  ensemble_planner skeleton, the Gazebo parallel-bringup tree, and
  pre-co-location test scaffolding
• trajectory_library's vestigial rqt selector (catkin-era GUI source,
  plugin.xml, setup.py, launcher script — never installed by its
  CMakeLists), the orphaned behavior-tree docs images, and an empty
  integration-testing stub page
• tests/goldens/wiring/ — wiring baselines live per-stack as
  stacks/<name>/wiring.md

Fixed

• airstack up guards (one-simulator, URDF pairing) validated .env only
  and were bypassed by --env-file; they now check the resolved
  configuration
• pytest tests/ collects the co-located unit tests before mark filtering
  (CI previously collected 97 of 252 items, so the Python unit tests ran
  nowhere); empty CI pytest arguments no longer recurse the repository;
  non-comparable artifacts are reported instead of false 0% results
• barebones_pegasus_launch.py crashed with NameError: os;
  isaac-sim-livestream produced a black stream with multi-drone scripts;
  NATNET_BODY_NAME/NATNET_TARGET_NAME overrides now work
• Isaac Sim image: PX4 ubuntu.sh no longer fails dpkg configure on the
  NVIDIA base; robot image pins pytest<8.1 and disables launch_testing
  for colcon unit tests
• Robot identity: a pre-set ROBOT_NAME is honored; the name-map catch-all
  maps to unknown_robot (valid ROS namespace token) and logs a warning
  naming both fixes; inert ROBOT_NAME/ROS_DOMAIN_ID lines dropped from
  overrides/l4t-px4-realrobot.env
• l4t robot image: dustynv's /ros_entrypoint.sh replaced with a
  passthrough so stale prebuilt fastcdr libs no longer crash apt-built
  nodes like MAVROS; the GeographicLib egm96-5 geoid is asserted at build
  time (MAVROS dies at startup without it)
• Bag recording: RECORD_BAGS=true now actually starts the recorder on a
  robot; recorder status is bridged in the correct direction so GCS
  indicators work; ros2 bag record --exclude updated for Jazzy's
  --exclude-regex (multiple excludes alternated into one regex)
• OptiTrack/NatNet: NATNET_SERVER_IP is forwarded to the robot container;
  the default tracked body matches the emulator; EKF2 external-vision
  parameters are passed as PX4_PARAM_* so PX4 actually fuses mocap;
  external-vision tuning corrected from real-flight bags (EKF2_EV_DELAY
  7.0, EKF2_EVP_NOISE 0.05); an unrecognized connection_type fails at
  startup instead of silently falling back; MODELDEF drone-body count is
  cross-checked against NUM_ROBOTS after the handshake; the emulator is
  installed as a Kit extension so launch scripts can import it

Landing page & simulation camera/lighting (alpha.13)

• Docs landing page redesigned around four demonstrated pillars
  (one-command bring-up, sim-to-vehicle code parity, full-stack CI, agent
  readiness): real quickstart commands with copy buttons, the actual
  airstack ready checklist, a live test-mark matrix, and a fresh
  autoplay hero video (Isaac full-warehouse and office, Foxglove's live
  3-robot trajectory traces, MS AirSim neighborhood and ZhangJiajie) —
  40 s / 5.4 MB, replacing the 37 MB splash GIF. Per-simulator and Foxglove
  clips are embedded in their docs sections, and the architecture image is
  now an unedited full-system desktop capture (sim + GCS + CLI, live).
• Isaac launch scripts grew camera/spawn/lighting env knobs
  (pegasus_app.py, plumbed through the isaac-sim compose service):
  ISAAC_SIM_FOLLOW_CAM / _OFFSET — a smoothed viewport chase camera
  tracking a drone via live Pegasus vehicle state (also fixes the black
  viewport at spawn on cm-authored stages; on by default, off disables);
  ISAAC_SIM_SPAWN_XY — recenter the spawn row away from a cluttered scene
  origin; ISAAC_SIM_LIGHT_BOOST — multiply the scene's own lights
  (de-instances light-bearing subtrees first, so e.g. the NVIDIA office's
  121 instanceable ceiling lights become editable);
  ISAAC_SIM_FOLLOW_CAM_LIGHT — headlight riding the follow camera;
  ISAAC_SIM_DOME_LIGHT — dome-light intensity/exposure override.