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name: developing-ansible-playbooks description: Provide guidelines on how to develop Ansible playbooks that are compliant with project standards. Should be used when generating, modifying, or reviewing Ansible playbooks, roles, or collections.

The developing-ansible-playbooks skill

This skill provides guidelines on how to develop Ansible playbooks that are compliant with project standards. Should be used when generating, modifying, or reviewing Ansible playbooks, roles, or collections.

Rule of thumb

If the Ansible playbook, role, or collection being developed has existing examples in the project repository, always refer to those examples and mimic their style and structure to ensure consistency.

If there are no existing examples in the project repository, refer to the following guidelines:

Task structure

The following structure should be followed for each task in the Ansible playbook:

• The when key should be placed at the start of the task, right after the name key.
• The module name should always be the last key of the task.
• The fully qualified collection name (FQCN) form should always be used.
• If the become key is used, it should be placed right after the when key.
• The become key is mandatory for tasks that require elevated privileges.
• Ansible fact references should use the ansible_facts prefix (e.g., ansible_facts['os_family'] instead of ansible_os_family).
• Use loop instead of with_items for iterating over lists.
• When loops are used, customize the loop variable name using loop_control for better readability.
• Always use true and false for boolean values.