molecule

name	molecule
description	How to run and manage Molecule tests for Ansible roles and playbooks. You MUST load this skill when running or managing Molecule tests for Ansible.
license	MIT

Molecule Testing

When to Use

• Agent needs to execute syntax/lint/test checks for Ansible playbooks locally.
• Troubleshooting configuration logic inside devcontainers or codespaces.
• User needs to run or debug Ansible role testing frameworks using Molecule.

Commands

# Run Molecule tests
molecule test

# Syntax check
molecule syntax

Devcontainer Guidance

When running Molecule inside GitHub Codespaces or a repository's VS Code devcontainer:

• Treat the repository devcontainer as the default controller environment for local development and testing.
• Keep controller dependency installation in the devcontainer configuration so Molecule scenarios can assume those tools are already available.
• Do not install controller-side Python dependencies during Molecule runs when the agent is already operating inside Codespaces or the repo devcontainer.
• Do not create additional Python virtual environments such as .venv or venv; use the existing container Python environment, which should already provide the required dependencies.
• If dependencies are missing in a Codespace or devcontainer, update .devcontainer/requirements.txt or .devcontainer/devcontainer.json instead of introducing a per-run Molecule install step or a separate virtual environment.

Troubleshooting

Molecule Testing issues

If you encounter problems or hangs during molecule test:

• Run molecule using separate commands (e.g., molecule create, molecule converge, molecule destroy) to isolate the issue.
• Always use a timeout prefix command when running separate commands to prevent indefinite hangs (e.g., timeout 600s molecule create for a max of 5-10 minutes).
• If dealing with upstream plugins that have broken conditionals, you may need to temporarily use the ANSIBLE_ALLOW_BROKEN_CONDITIONALS=1 environment variable (e.g., timeout 600s env ANSIBLE_ALLOW_BROKEN_CONDITIONALS=1 molecule create).

Ansible Environment issues

• Ansible missing Python modules: If a module such as requests or docker is installed for the main container Python but Ansible still cannot import it, check ansible --version to identify the interpreter in use. In Codespaces/devcontainers, Ansible may run from a pipx-managed environment, so install controller-side libraries there as well, for example with pipx inject ansible -r .devcontainer/requirements-ansible.txt.