[Jan Egil Ring (janegilring)]

This pull request introduces a robust, private jq bootstrap mechanism for the adaptive apps lab automation, ensuring a secure and reproducible environment for all Bash phases without requiring system-level jq installation or elevated privileges. It also updates documentation and tests to reflect and validate this new approach, and makes a minor adjustment to lab location preferences.

Private jq Bootstrap and Validation:

• Added a new Install-AdaptiveJq PowerShell function that downloads a pinned jq 1.8.2 binary for Linux x64/ARM64, verifies its SHA-256 hash and version, and installs it to a private $HOME/.local/bin directory, ensuring no dependency on system jq or sudo/package manager access. The tool directory is prepended to PATH for Bash phases. [1] [2] [3] [4]
• Updated the main deployment script (deploy-lab.ps1) to invoke the private jq bootstrap before any Azure provisioning or Bash execution.
• Enhanced documentation in README.md to describe the new jq bootstrap process and its security guarantees. [1] [2]

Testing Improvements:

• Added comprehensive Pester tests for the jq bootstrap, covering successful installation, hash/version/download failures, and ensuring no impact on existing executables in failure scenarios.
• Updated participant orchestration tests to assert that jq is always installed before provisioning or Bash execution, and that failures in jq bootstrap halt the process early. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Configuration Update:

• Changed the preferred Azure lab region order in lab-defaults.json to prioritize spaincentral over swedencentral.