Ansible

Keeps Ansible itself managed: installs ansible-core with a matched mitogen (uv-managed by default, apt opt-in), applies this host's configured roles, and configures shell aliases.

Demo

What it does

• Installs ansible-core, mitogen, and ansible-lint in one uv-managed environment (the default), or via apt with ansible_install_method: apt (Ubuntu 24.04+)
• Migrating apt to uv is a clean switch: the role removes a shadowing user-site pip Ansible (never apt's system packages) and registers the mitogen strategy plugins in ~/.ansible/plugins/strategy
• Applies the roles listed in ansible_roles_all / ansible_roles_extra (an alternative to a static roles: block)
• Shell aliases for running the playbook

Variables

Variable	Default	Description
ansible_install_method	uv	How Ansible is installed: uv (a current ansible-core with a matched mitogen in one isolated env) or apt (Ubuntu 24.04+ system packages; apt's ansible-mitogen hard-aborts under any newer ansible-core installed alongside it).
ansible_uv_python	"3.14"	Python the uv-managed Ansible runs on. Drop to 3.13 / 3.12 if mitogen misbehaves on the newest interpreter.

A data-driven alternative to a static roles: block, so different machines run different roles from one playbook. Three stages, each overridable:

Variable	Default	Description
ansible_roles_all	[]	The baseline list of roles for all hosts (set in group_vars/all.yaml).
ansible_roles_extra	roles_extra (or [])	Extra roles for this host (set in host_vars), merged onto the baseline. Reads the bare roles_extra var so playbook config can set it without the prefix.
ansible_roles_include	ansible_roles_all + ansible_roles_extra, de-duplicated, minus the ansible role	The finalized list the role includes, computed. Entries may be short names (resolved in this collection) or fully-qualified namespace.collection.role, so a fleet can mix in a company collection.

Examples

ansible_roles_all sets the baseline for every host; ansible_roles_extra adds to it per host. The two merge into ansible_roles_include:

# group_vars/all.yaml: every host gets these
ansible_roles_all:           # default: []
  - ubuntu
  - bash
  - git
  - starship

# host_vars/work-laptop.yaml: extra roles for one machine
ansible_roles_extra:         # default: the bare `roles_extra` var, else []
  - docker
  - kubernetes
  - acme.internal.devtools   # fully-qualified role from a company collection

Aliases

Alias	Command	Description
play	ansible-playbook --diff --ask-become-pass $ANSIBLE_PLAYBOOK	Run the playbook with diff output
playcheck	ansible-playbook --check --diff --ask-become-pass $ANSIBLE_PLAYBOOK	Dry-run the playbook with diff output

The playbook comes from $ANSIBLE_PLAYBOOK when exported; with the variable unset, pass it as an argument: play playbook.yaml.