ansible-creator

name	ansible-creator
description	Reference for scaffolding Ansible content with ansible-creator. Use ansible-creator to initialize new collections, playbook projects, and execution environments, or to add plugins and resources to existing projects. This skill is the canonical lookup table for which subcommand and flags to use.
argument-hint	[subcommand]
user-invocable	true
metadata	{"author":"Ansible DevTools Team","version":"1.0.0"}

ansible-creator — Ansible Content Scaffolding Tool

Usage

/ansible-creator                  # Show full subcommand reference
/ansible-creator init             # How to scaffold new projects
/ansible-creator add              # How to add plugins/resources

ansible-creator scaffolds Ansible content projects. Use init to create new projects from scratch and add to extend existing ones with plugins or resources.

Hard Rules

1. Always use namespace.name format for init collection and init playbook.
2. Never scaffold into a non-empty directory without -o/--overwrite — the command will fail.
3. After scaffolding, run tox -e lint to verify the generated content passes quality gates. See the /tox skill.
4. add plugin requires the collection root — the path must point to the directory containing galaxy.yml.

Subcommand Reference

Initialize projects

Command	What it creates	Example
ansible-creator init collection <ns>.<name> <path>	Full collection skeleton (plugins, roles, tests, docs, galaxy.yml)	ansible-creator init collection myorg.network ~/collections/ansible_collections
ansible-creator init playbook <ns>.<name> <path>	Playbook project structure	ansible-creator init playbook myorg.deploy ~/projects/deploy
ansible-creator init execution_env <path>	Execution environment definition files	ansible-creator init execution_env ~/ee-project

Add to existing projects

Resources

Command	What it adds
ansible-creator add resource devcontainer <path>	Dev container configuration
ansible-creator add resource devfile <path>	Devfile for cloud IDEs
ansible-creator add resource execution-environment <path>	Sample EE YAML template
ansible-creator add resource play-argspec <path>	Playbook argument specification examples
ansible-creator add resource role <path>	New role skeleton

Plugins

Command	What it adds	Example
ansible-creator add plugin action <name> <coll-path>	Action plugin	ansible-creator add plugin action my_action .
ansible-creator add plugin filter <name> <coll-path>	Filter plugin	ansible-creator add plugin filter my_filter .
ansible-creator add plugin lookup <name> <coll-path>	Lookup plugin	ansible-creator add plugin lookup my_lookup .
ansible-creator add plugin module <name> <coll-path>	Module plugin	ansible-creator add plugin module my_module .
ansible-creator add plugin test <name> <coll-path>	Test plugin	ansible-creator add plugin test my_test .

Common Flags

Flag	Purpose
-o / --overwrite	Overwrite existing files
-no / --no-overwrite	Fail if destination exists (default)
--json	Output in JSON format
-v	Increase verbosity (up to -vvv)
--log-file <path>	Write log to file
--na / --no-ansi	Disable colored output
--ll / --log-level	Set logging level (debug, info, warning, error, critical)

Common Agent Workflows

"I need to start a new Ansible collection"

ansible-creator init collection myorg.mynetwork ~/collections/ansible_collections
cd ~/collections/ansible_collections/myorg/mynetwork
tox -e lint

"I need to add a module plugin to an existing collection"

cd /path/to/collection       # must contain galaxy.yml
ansible-creator add plugin module my_new_module .

"I need to scaffold an execution environment"

ansible-creator init execution_env ~/ee-project

"The target directory already has files"

Use --overwrite to replace existing files, or choose a clean path:

ansible-creator init collection myorg.mynetwork ~/collections/ansible_collections --overwrite

Installation

pip3 install ansible-dev-tools   # recommended: includes all devtools
pip3 install ansible-creator     # standalone

Configuration

ansible-creator does not use a configuration file. All options are passed as CLI flags. Scaffolded projects may include their own pyproject.toml, galaxy.yml, and tox.ini for downstream configuration.