diff --git a/.github/scripts/o2-run-report.sh b/.github/scripts/o2-run-report.sh
index 464a65cdf1..6e0473b654 100755
--- a/.github/scripts/o2-run-report.sh
+++ b/.github/scripts/o2-run-report.sh
@@ -34,23 +34,34 @@ gh_get(){ curl -s -H "Authorization: token ${GH_TOKEN}" -H "Accept: application/
 
 # wall-clock of one attempt = max(completed) - min(started) across its jobs (clamped non-negative
 # to guard against clock-skew where a completed_at precedes a started_at).
-attempt_wall(){ jq '[.jobs[]|select(.completed_at!=null and .started_at!=null)] as $j
-  | (if ($j|length)>0 then (($j|map(.completed_at|fromdateiso8601)|max)-($j|map(.started_at|fromdateiso8601)|min)) else 0 end)
+# $1 = floor epoch (the attempt's run_started_at). On a RE-RUN, GitHub's per-attempt jobs API
+# carries over jobs that did NOT re-run with their ORIGINAL (earlier-attempt) timestamps, so a
+# naive min(started) spans the idle gap between a failed run and a much-later manual re-run —
+# inflating the duration by hours. Flooring the start at run_started_at counts only this
+# attempt's actual work (no effect on normal runs, where min(started) >= run_started_at).
+attempt_wall(){ jq --argjson floor "${1:-0}" '[.jobs[]|select(.completed_at!=null and .started_at!=null)] as $j
+  | (if ($j|length)>0 then (($j|map(.completed_at|fromdateiso8601)|max)-([($j|map(.started_at|fromdateiso8601)|min), $floor]|max)) else 0 end)
   | if . < 0 then 0 else . end'; }
+# Epoch seconds of a run/attempt object's run_started_at (0 if absent).
+run_started_epoch(){ jq 'if .run_started_at then (.run_started_at|fromdateiso8601) else 0 end'; }
 
 RUN_JSON=$(gh_get "repos/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}/actions/runs/${GITHUB_RUN_ID}" 2>/dev/null)
 [ -n "$RUN_JSON" ] || { echo "::warning::could not fetch run object — skipping"; exit 0; }
 ATT="${GITHUB_RUN_ATTEMPT:-1}"
+# This attempt's start — the floor for its wall-clock (see attempt_wall).
+RUN_STARTED=$(printf '%s' "$RUN_JSON" | run_started_epoch 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
+[ -n "$RUN_STARTED" ] || RUN_STARTED=0
 
 THIS_JOBS=$(gh_get "repos/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}/actions/runs/${GITHUB_RUN_ID}/attempts/${ATT}/jobs?per_page=100" 2>/dev/null)
-FINAL_DUR=$(printf '%s' "$THIS_JOBS" | attempt_wall 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
+FINAL_DUR=$(printf '%s' "$THIS_JOBS" | attempt_wall "$RUN_STARTED" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
 
 # total across attempts: add each prior attempt's wall-clock.
 TOTAL_DUR="$FINAL_DUR"
 if [ "$ATT" -gt 1 ] 2>/dev/null; then
   SUM="$FINAL_DUR"
   for n in $(seq 1 $((ATT-1))); do
-    W=$(gh_get "repos/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}/actions/runs/${GITHUB_RUN_ID}/attempts/${n}/jobs?per_page=100" 2>/dev/null | attempt_wall 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
+    NFLOOR=$(gh_get "repos/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}/actions/runs/${GITHUB_RUN_ID}/attempts/${n}" 2>/dev/null | run_started_epoch 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
+    W=$(gh_get "repos/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}/actions/runs/${GITHUB_RUN_ID}/attempts/${n}/jobs?per_page=100" 2>/dev/null | attempt_wall "${NFLOOR:-0}" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
     SUM=$(awk -v a="$SUM" -v b="$W" 'BEGIN{print a+b}')
   done
   TOTAL_DUR="$SUM"
diff --git a/.github/workflows/playwright.yml b/.github/workflows/playwright.yml
index 63a1dcb9bd..323243f229 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/playwright.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/playwright.yml
@@ -972,16 +972,36 @@ jobs:
             fi
           fi
 
-          # Unset CI to use non-CI reporter config (html + json instead of blob)
-          unset CI
-          npx playwright merge-reports --config playwright.config.js ./all-blob-reports
+          # Force the html + json reporters explicitly with their output paths instead of
+          # relying on `unset CI` to flip playwright.config.js's `process.env.CI ? blob : html/json`
+          # ternary. The runner exports CI=true and `unset CI` does not reliably reach the
+          # merge subprocess, so the config would intermittently re-select the `blob` reporter —
+          # which writes a merged blob-report/ and NOTHING to playwright-results/, making the
+          # downstream `ls playwright-results/html-report/` fail with a cryptic exit 2.
+          mkdir -p playwright-results
+          # These env vars override playwright.config.js's reporter settings:
+          #   PLAYWRIGHT_HTML_OUTPUT_DIR  - html reporter output directory
+          #   PLAYWRIGHT_HTML_OPEN=never  - never auto-open the report (required for CI)
+          #   PLAYWRIGHT_JSON_OUTPUT_NAME - json reporter output file path
+          PLAYWRIGHT_HTML_OUTPUT_DIR=playwright-results/html-report \
+          PLAYWRIGHT_HTML_OPEN=never \
+          PLAYWRIGHT_JSON_OUTPUT_NAME=playwright-results/report.json \
+            npx playwright merge-reports --reporter html,json ./all-blob-reports
 
           echo "Contents of playwright-results:"
-          ls -la playwright-results/
+          ls -la playwright-results/ || true
+          if [ ! -f playwright-results/html-report/index.html ] || [ ! -f playwright-results/report.json ]; then
+            echo "::error::merge-reports did not produce the expected html-report/index.html and report.json"
+            echo "::error::all-blob-reports contents:"
+            ls -la all-blob-reports/ || true
+            exit 1
+          fi
+          # Diagnostics only — never fail the step on these (the guard above already
+          # confirmed the outputs exist).
           echo "Contents of html-report:"
-          ls -la playwright-results/html-report/
+          ls -la playwright-results/html-report/ || true
           echo "Checking report.json:"
-          ls -lh playwright-results/report.json
+          ls -lh playwright-results/report.json || true
 
       - name: Extract report stats for OpenObserve
         id: report_stats
diff --git a/.github/workflows/playwright_regression.yml b/.github/workflows/playwright_regression.yml
index 61f2f40528..728170bbe4 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/playwright_regression.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/playwright_regression.yml
@@ -612,15 +612,36 @@ jobs:
             fi
           fi
 
-          unset CI
-          npx playwright merge-reports --config playwright.config.js ./all-blob-reports
+          # Force the html + json reporters explicitly with their output paths instead of
+          # relying on `unset CI` to flip playwright.config.js's `process.env.CI ? blob : html/json`
+          # ternary. The runner exports CI=true and `unset CI` does not reliably reach the
+          # merge subprocess, so the config would intermittently re-select the `blob` reporter —
+          # which writes a merged blob-report/ and NOTHING to playwright-results/, making the
+          # downstream `ls playwright-results/html-report/` fail with a cryptic exit 2.
+          mkdir -p playwright-results
+          # These env vars override playwright.config.js's reporter settings:
+          #   PLAYWRIGHT_HTML_OUTPUT_DIR  - html reporter output directory
+          #   PLAYWRIGHT_HTML_OPEN=never  - never auto-open the report (required for CI)
+          #   PLAYWRIGHT_JSON_OUTPUT_NAME - json reporter output file path
+          PLAYWRIGHT_HTML_OUTPUT_DIR=playwright-results/html-report \
+          PLAYWRIGHT_HTML_OPEN=never \
+          PLAYWRIGHT_JSON_OUTPUT_NAME=playwright-results/report.json \
+            npx playwright merge-reports --reporter html,json ./all-blob-reports
 
           echo "Contents of playwright-results:"
-          ls -la playwright-results/
+          ls -la playwright-results/ || true
+          if [ ! -f playwright-results/html-report/index.html ] || [ ! -f playwright-results/report.json ]; then
+            echo "::error::merge-reports did not produce the expected html-report/index.html and report.json"
+            echo "::error::all-blob-reports contents:"
+            ls -la all-blob-reports/ || true
+            exit 1
+          fi
+          # Diagnostics only — never fail the step on these (the guard above already
+          # confirmed the outputs exist).
           echo "Contents of html-report:"
-          ls -la playwright-results/html-report/
+          ls -la playwright-results/html-report/ || true
           echo "Checking report.json:"
-          ls -lh playwright-results/report.json
+          ls -lh playwright-results/report.json || true
 
       - name: Extract report stats for OpenObserve
         id: report_stats
@@ -748,19 +769,33 @@ jobs:
             "https://api.github.com/repos/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}/actions/runs/${GITHUB_RUN_ID}/attempts/${GITHUB_RUN_ATTEMPT}/jobs?per_page=100" \
             > jobs.json || echo '{"jobs":[]}' > jobs.json
 
+          # This attempt's start time — the floor for awall (below). On a RE-RUN, GitHub keeps
+          # the jobs that did NOT re-run at their ORIGINAL (earlier-attempt) timestamps, so a
+          # naive min(started) spans the idle gap to a much-later manual re-run and inflates the
+          # duration by hours. Flooring the start at run_started_at counts only this attempt's work.
+          RUN_STARTED=$(curl -s -H "Authorization: token $GH_TOKEN" -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json" \
+            "https://api.github.com/repos/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}/actions/runs/${GITHUB_RUN_ID}" \
+            | jq 'if .run_started_at then (.run_started_at|fromdateiso8601) else 0 end' 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
+          [ -n "$RUN_STARTED" ] || RUN_STARTED=0
+
           STATS="${MERGE_STATS:-}"; [ -z "$STATS" ] && STATS=null
 
           # Retry-aware: this attempt's wall-clock + total summed across all attempts (so the
           # latest-attempt doc carries the cumulative compute; dashboards keep latest per run_id).
           ATT="${GITHUB_RUN_ATTEMPT:-1}"
-          awall(){ jq '[.jobs[]|select(.completed_at!=null and .started_at!=null)] as $j | (if ($j|length)>0 then (($j|map(.completed_at|fromdateiso8601)|max)-($j|map(.started_at|fromdateiso8601)|min)) else 0 end) | if . < 0 then 0 else . end'; }
-          FINAL_DUR=$(awall < jobs.json 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
+          # $1 = floor epoch (run_started_at); start = max(min job started, floor) so re-run
+          # carry-over jobs with old timestamps don't inflate the wall-clock.
+          awall(){ jq --argjson floor "${1:-0}" '[.jobs[]|select(.completed_at!=null and .started_at!=null)] as $j | (if ($j|length)>0 then (($j|map(.completed_at|fromdateiso8601)|max)-([($j|map(.started_at|fromdateiso8601)|min), $floor]|max)) else 0 end) | if . < 0 then 0 else . end'; }
+          FINAL_DUR=$(awall "$RUN_STARTED" < jobs.json 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
           TOTAL_DUR="$FINAL_DUR"
           if [ "$ATT" -gt 1 ] 2>/dev/null; then
             SUM="$FINAL_DUR"
             for n in $(seq 1 $((ATT-1))); do
+              NFLOOR=$(curl -s -H "Authorization: token $GH_TOKEN" -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json" \
+                "https://api.github.com/repos/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}/actions/runs/${GITHUB_RUN_ID}/attempts/${n}" \
+                | jq 'if .run_started_at then (.run_started_at|fromdateiso8601) else 0 end' 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
               W=$(curl -s -H "Authorization: token $GH_TOKEN" -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json" \
-                "https://api.github.com/repos/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}/actions/runs/${GITHUB_RUN_ID}/attempts/${n}/jobs?per_page=100" | awall 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
+                "https://api.github.com/repos/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}/actions/runs/${GITHUB_RUN_ID}/attempts/${n}/jobs?per_page=100" | awall "${NFLOOR:-0}" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
               SUM=$(awk -v a="$SUM" -v b="$W" 'BEGIN{print a+b}')
             done
             TOTAL_DUR="$SUM"