First scheduled discovery run fails, second run succeeds

[Dbzman]

Describe the bug
We run our Renovate jobs once a night. (0 3 * * *) The problem is that they actual renovate runs for the projects did not happen in the last days. When we investigated, we found out that the discovery schedule fails when no previous or completed pod with logs is laying around. When the second schedule is triggered (not manually), the discovery succeeds and renovate project runs are properly scheduled.

As a workaround we set the schedule to 0,10 3 * * * to ensure that we have a pod with logs laying around.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

• add a RenovateJob with schedule: "*/5 * * * *" (to illustrate the problem easier)
• ensure discovery has run before and individual project jobs are succeeded
• delete the completed discovery job (if existing) for the RenovateJob
• wait for the schedule
• the discovery will fail
• wait one more schedule
• the discovery succeeds and triggers individual renovate runs

Expected behavior
Independently of a job which lays around, the discovery process should work.

Screenshots & Logs

# failing job
{"level":"info","ts":"2026-03-06T14:22:28Z","logger":"scheduler","msg":"added","now":"2026-03-06T14:22:28Z","entry":11,"next":"2026-03-06T14:25:00Z"}
{"level":"info","ts":"2026-03-06T14:25:00Z","logger":"scheduler","msg":"wake","now":"2026-03-06T14:25:00Z"}
{"level":"info","ts":"2026-03-06T14:25:00Z","logger":"scheduler","msg":"executing schedule","schedule":"default-services-renovate"}
{"level":"info","ts":"2026-03-06T14:25:00Z","logger":"scheduler","msg":"run","now":"2026-03-06T14:25:00Z","entry":11,"next":"2026-03-06T14:30:00Z"}
{"level":"error","ts":"2026-03-06T14:25:00Z","logger":"renovatejob-controller.default-services-renovate","msg":"Failed to discover projects for RenovateJob","controller":"renovatejob","controllerGroup":"renovate
{"level":"info","ts":"2026-03-06T14:25:00Z","logger":"scheduler","msg":"schedule executed","schedule":"default-services-renovate"}
# working job
{"level":"info","ts":"2026-03-06T14:30:00Z","logger":"scheduler","msg":"wake","now":"2026-03-06T14:30:00Z"}
{"level":"info","ts":"2026-03-06T14:30:00Z","logger":"scheduler","msg":"run","now":"2026-03-06T14:30:00Z","entry":11,"next":"2026-03-06T14:35:00Z"}
{"level":"info","ts":"2026-03-06T14:30:00Z","logger":"scheduler","msg":"executing schedule","schedule":"default-services-renovate"}
{"level":"info","ts":"2026-03-06T14:30:40Z","logger":"scheduler","msg":"schedule executed","schedule":"default-services-renovate"}

Information (please complete the following information):

• Kubernetes Version 1.35.0
• Version 1.20.0 and 1.22.1 (observed with both)