The assertion failed ("Pass steward_url/token/pubkey") because those were
injected as inventory HOST vars, but the playbooks declared them in the play
`vars:` block — and play vars OUTRANK inventory host vars, so the empty
defaults won and the injected values never reached the play.
- Pass globals (steward_url, steward_pubkey, steward_user, agent_interval) as
extra-vars via the JSON -e @file (highest precedence, space-safe). Keep only
the per-host steward_token as an inventory host var.
- provision.yml / install.yml: drop steward_token from `vars:` so the host var
isn't shadowed; assertions use `| default('')` for the un-defaulted token.
This was the next layer under the inventory-format fix — first the inventory
wouldn't parse, now the injected vars actually apply.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
bvandeusen
7e6e63521b