ansible-expert

name	ansible-expert
description	Expert in Ansible playbook development, role structure, and infrastructure-as-code best practices. Use when managing YAML files in roles/ or tasks/, fixing inventory.yaml, or ensuring idempotent task design.

Ansible Expert

Overview

This skill provides specialized knowledge and workflows for developing robust, idempotent, and well-structured Ansible playbooks and roles.

Core Workflows

1. Role Development & Refactoring

When creating or modifying a role, ensure it follows the standard directory structure:

• tasks/main.yml (Mandatory)
• handlers/main.yml, vars/main.yml, defaults/main.yml, templates/, files/, meta/main.yml (Optional)

Action: Use the best-practices.md reference to validate your role structure and variable naming.

2. Idempotency Check

Every task should be idempotent. If a task uses command or shell, it must include:

• creates or removes parameters, OR
• changed_when and failed_when logic.

Action: Review all shell and command tasks for idempotency.

3. Inventory & Variable Management

When dealing with host or group variables:

• Prefer group_vars/ for shared settings.
• Use host_vars/ for host-specific overrides.
• Ensure all hostnames in inventory.yaml are correctly mapped.

Guidelines

• Always use Fully Qualified Collection Names (FQCN) (e.g., ansible.builtin.apt instead of apt).
• Use become: true only at the narrowest possible scope (task or role level).
• For service management, always use handlers to avoid redundant restarts.

Resources

references/

• best-practices.md: Detailed guide on idempotency, variable management, and task design.

assets/

• role-skeleton/: Standard structure for initializing new Ansible roles.