Skill Store 33

Ansible

Automate configuration management and application deployment with Ansible.

by greedychipmunk · MIT

The skill

Automate configuration management and application deployment with Ansible. Use when tasks mention ansible-playbook, inventory files, Ansible roles, ad-hoc commands, ansible-galaxy, or agentless SSH automation.

Ansible

Intent Router

Request Reference Load When
Install tool, SSH setup, ansible.cfg resources/install-and-setup.md User needs to install Ansible or configure control node
Inventory files, group_vars, host_vars resources/inventory-and-variables.md User needs inventory structure or variable precedence
Playbook authoring, roles, modules resources/playbook-patterns.md User needs play structure, task patterns, or common modules
CLI commands, vault, galaxy resources/command-cookbook.md User needs ansible/ansible-playbook/ansible-vault/galaxy commands

Quick Start

# 1. Define your inventory
cat > inventory.ini <<'EOF'
[web]
web1.example.com
web2.example.com

[db]
db1.example.com
EOF

# 2. Test connectivity (ad-hoc ping)
ansible all -i inventory.ini -m ping

# 3. Run a playbook
ansible-playbook -i inventory.ini site.yml

# 4. Dry-run a playbook (check mode — no changes)
ansible-playbook -i inventory.ini site.yml --check --diff

Core Concepts

Concept Description
Control node Machine where Ansible runs (requires Python; no agent needed on targets)
Managed node Target host reached via SSH (Linux) or WinRM (Windows)
Inventory List of managed nodes (INI, YAML, or dynamic script)
Playbook YAML file defining ordered plays and tasks
Role Reusable directory structure (tasks, handlers, templates, vars)
Module Idempotent unit of work (copy, service, package, user, command…)
Collection Packaged set of roles, modules, and plugins from Ansible Galaxy

Safety Guardrails

  • Always run with --check --diff first to preview changes without applying them.
  • Use --limit to target a subset of hosts before running against all inventory.
  • Avoid command and shell modules when an idempotent module exists.
  • Running as root (become: true) requires explicit approval — confirm privilege escalation scope.
  • Protect secrets with ansible-vault encrypt — never commit plaintext passwords.
# Install a role then dry-run the playbook to preview changes
ansible-galaxy role install geerlingguy.java
ansible-playbook -i inventory.ini site.yml --check --diff

Workflow

  1. Define or update inventory.
  2. Test connectivity: ansible all -m ping -i inventory.ini
  3. Write or update playbook.
  4. Dry-run: ansible-playbook site.yml -i inventory.ini --check --diff
  5. Run against a subset: ansible-playbook site.yml -i inventory.ini --limit web1.example.com
  6. Run against all: ansible-playbook site.yml -i inventory.ini

Related Skills

  • terraform — provision infrastructure; Ansible configures after provisioning
  • pulumi — IaC with code; Ansible handles post-provision configuration

References

Use this skill

Connect your agent to the Skill Store MCP server and ask for it by ref: greedychipmunk/ansible-69371104421.

Download SKILL.md · Markdown version

Details

Publisher
greedychipmunk
Category
Software Development › DevOps & cloud
License
MIT
Updated
2026-10-15

References

More from greedychipmunk

  • Agent Development Design and build AI agents with persistent memory, tool use, and multi-turn conversation.
  • Argocd Deploy Kubernetes apps declaratively with Argo CD applications and projects.
  • Astryx Generate Astryx design system components, themes, and layouts for React 19 applications.
  • Blog Manager Guides an autonomous blog manager agent to propose topics, draft articles, and skip topics with s…

Related skills

  • Ansible Automation Infrastructure automation and configuration management using Ansible playbooks, roles, and invent…
  • Ansible Playbooks Use when writing and organizing Ansible playbooks for automated configuration management and infr…
  • Ansible Expert Expert-level Ansible for configuration management, automation, and infrastructure as code.
  • Ansible Generator Generate, create, or scaffold Ansible playbooks, roles, tasks, handlers, inventory, vars.
  • Ansible Roles Use when structuring and reusing code with Ansible roles for modular, maintainable automation and…