diff --git a/crates/cm-api/src/mission_orchestrator.rs b/crates/cm-api/src/mission_orchestrator.rs
index df54158..5da4aad 100644
--- a/crates/cm-api/src/mission_orchestrator.rs
+++ b/crates/cm-api/src/mission_orchestrator.rs
@@ -79,7 +79,12 @@ pub async fn on_launch(
     // The mission's own runtime endpoint. Claws MUST be provisioned against
     // THIS gateway, not the global one — see RuntimeProvisioner::for_gateway.
     let mut mission_gateway: Option<String> = None;
-    if let Some(prov) = crate::mission_runtime::MissionRuntimeProvisioner::from_env() {
+    // Not for a microVM mission: the ZeroClaw daemon it would start is never
+    // spoken to, and it would sit holding a pairing code and ~3 GB of image for
+    // the life of the mission. Observed doing exactly that on the first real run.
+    if let Some(prov) = crate::mission_runtime::MissionRuntimeProvisioner::from_env()
+        .filter(|_| mission.runtime_kind != "microvm")
+    {
         match prov.ensure_container(mission_id).await {
             Ok(ec) => {
                 mission_gateway = Some(ec.endpoint.clone());
@@ -115,6 +120,24 @@ pub async fn on_launch(
         );
     }
 
+    // A microVM mission materialises no team. Its phases run as one `claude -p`
+    // inside a VM (`microvm_executor`), so there is no claw graph to provision —
+    // and demanding one rejected the launch of a well-formed mission with "pick
+    // teams in the wizard". This is the third of three team gates on a path that
+    // uses no teams; the other two are in `routes::missions` (draft→running) and
+    // `phase_runner::launch_phase` (no matching teams → stay pending).
+    //
+    // Returning before the picks below, not filtering them, because provisioning
+    // claws that never run is not a cheaper version of the same thing — it is a
+    // runtime binding and a pairing code describing something nothing uses.
+    if mission.runtime_kind == "microvm" {
+        eprintln!(
+            "mission_orchestrator: mission {mission_id} is a microvm mission — no team to \
+             materialise; its phases execute in a VM"
+        );
+        return Ok(None);
+    }
+
     // Skip team materialization if already bound.
     if mission.team_id.is_some() {
         eprintln!(