Skip to content

ansible-lint

GitHub stars sarif GitHub release (latest SemVer) GitHub last commit GitHub commit activity GitHub contributors

Ansible-lint checks Ansible playbooks for practices and behavior that could potentially be improved. It's a community-backed project that helps enforce best practices and maintain high-quality Ansible code.

Key Features:

  • Best Practice Validation: Checks playbooks against Ansible community best practices and conventions
  • Auto-fixing: Can automatically fix some of the most common issues found in playbooks
  • Extensible Rules: Comprehensive set of built-in rules with support for custom rules
  • Multiple Output Formats: Supports various output formats including SARIF for integration with security tools
  • Configuration Flexibility: Highly configurable with support for .ansible-lint configuration files
  • Community Support: Supports only the last two major versions of Ansible, ensuring compatibility

Common checks include:

  • YAML syntax and formatting
  • Task and playbook structure validation
  • Security best practices (avoiding plain text secrets)
  • Proper use of Ansible modules and features
  • Naming conventions and documentation standards

Ansible-lint helps teams maintain consistent, secure, and well-structured Ansible automation code.

ansible-lint documentation

ansible-lint - GitHub

Configuration in MegaLinter

Variable Description Default value
ANSIBLE_ANSIBLE_LINT_ARGUMENTS User custom arguments to add in linter CLI call
Ex: -s --foo "bar"
ANSIBLE_ANSIBLE_LINT_COMMAND_REMOVE_ARGUMENTS User custom arguments to remove from command line before calling the linter
Ex: -s --foo "bar"
ANSIBLE_ANSIBLE_LINT_CLI_LINT_MODE Override default CLI lint mode
⚠️ As default value is project, overriding might not work
- file: Calls the linter for each file
- list_of_files: Call the linter with the list of files as argument
- project: Call the linter from the root of the project		 project
ANSIBLE_ANSIBLE_LINT_FILE_EXTENSIONS Allowed file extensions. "*" matches any extension, "" matches empty extension. Empty list excludes all files
Ex: [".py", ""]		 [".yml", ".yaml"]
ANSIBLE_ANSIBLE_LINT_FILE_NAMES_REGEX File name regex filters. Regular expression list for filtering files by their base names using regex full match. Empty list includes all files
Ex: ["Dockerfile(-.+)?", "Jenkinsfile"]		 Include every file
ANSIBLE_ANSIBLE_LINT_PRE_COMMANDS List of bash commands to run before the linter None
ANSIBLE_ANSIBLE_LINT_POST_COMMANDS List of bash commands to run after the linter None
ANSIBLE_ANSIBLE_LINT_UNSECURED_ENV_VARIABLES List of env variables explicitly not filtered before calling ANSIBLE_ANSIBLE_LINT and its pre/post commands None
ANSIBLE_ANSIBLE_LINT_CONFIG_FILE ansible-lint configuration file name
Use LINTER_DEFAULT to let the linter find it		 .ansible-lint
ANSIBLE_ANSIBLE_LINT_RULES_PATH Path where to find linter configuration file Workspace folder, then MegaLinter default rules
ANSIBLE_ANSIBLE_LINT_DISABLE_ERRORS Run linter but consider errors as warnings false
ANSIBLE_ANSIBLE_LINT_DISABLE_ERRORS_IF_LESS_THAN Maximum number of errors allowed 0
ANSIBLE_ANSIBLE_LINT_CLI_EXECUTABLE Override CLI executable ['ansible-lint']

MegaLinter Flavors

This linter is available in the following flavors

Flavor Description Embedded linters Info
all Default MegaLinter Flavor 127 Docker Image Size (tag) Docker Pulls
c_cpp Optimized for pure C/C++ projects 56 Docker Image Size (tag) Docker Pulls
cupcake MegaLinter for the most commonly used languages 88 Docker Image Size (tag) Docker Pulls
documentation MegaLinter for documentation projects 49 Docker Image Size (tag) Docker Pulls
dotnet Optimized for C, C++, C# or VB based projects 64 Docker Image Size (tag) Docker Pulls
dotnetweb Optimized for C, C++, C# or VB based projects with JS/TS 73 Docker Image Size (tag) Docker Pulls
go Optimized for GO based projects 51 Docker Image Size (tag) Docker Pulls
java Optimized for JAVA based projects 54 Docker Image Size (tag) Docker Pulls
javascript Optimized for JAVASCRIPT or TYPESCRIPT based projects 59 Docker Image Size (tag) Docker Pulls
php Optimized for PHP based projects 54 Docker Image Size (tag) Docker Pulls
python Optimized for PYTHON based projects 65 Docker Image Size (tag) Docker Pulls
ruby Optimized for RUBY based projects 50 Docker Image Size (tag) Docker Pulls
rust Optimized for RUST based projects 50 Docker Image Size (tag) Docker Pulls
salesforce Optimized for Salesforce based projects 53 Docker Image Size (tag) Docker Pulls
security Optimized for security 24 Docker Image Size (tag) Docker Pulls
swift Optimized for SWIFT based projects 50 Docker Image Size (tag) Docker Pulls
terraform Optimized for TERRAFORM based projects 54 Docker Image Size (tag) Docker Pulls

Behind the scenes

How are identified applicable files

  • Activated only if one of these files is found: .ansible-lint, .ansible-lint.yml, .ansible-lint.yaml, .config/ansible-lint.yml, .config/ansible-lint.yaml
  • File extensions: .yml, .yaml
  • File name don't ends with: vault.yml, vault.yaml, galaxy.yml, galaxy.yaml

How the linting is performed

ansible-lint is called once on the whole project directory (project CLI lint mode)

  • filtering can not be done using MegaLinter configuration variables,it must be done using ansible-lint configuration or ignore file (if existing)
  • VALIDATE_ALL_CODEBASE: false doesn't make ansible-lint analyze only updated files

Example calls

ansible-lint -v

ansible-lint -v -c .ansible-lint

Help content

WARNING: PATH altered to expand ~ in it. Read https://stackoverflow.com/a/44704799/99834 and correct your system configuration.
usage: ansible-lint [-h] [-P | -L | -T]
                    [-f {brief,full,md,json,codeclimate,quiet,pep8,sarif}]
                    [--sarif-file SARIF_FILE] [-q]
                    [--profile {min,basic,moderate,safety,shared,production}]
                    [-p] [--project-dir PROJECT_DIR] [-r RULESDIR] [-R] [-s]
                    [--fix [WRITE_LIST]] [--show-relpath] [-t TAGS] [-v]
                    [-x SKIP_LIST] [--generate-ignore] [-w WARN_LIST]
                    [--enable-list ENABLE_LIST] [--nocolor] [--force-color]
                    [--exclude EXCLUDE_PATHS [EXCLUDE_PATHS ...]]
                    [-c CONFIG_FILE] [-i IGNORE_FILE]
                    [--yamllint-file YAMLLINT_FILE] [--offline | --no-offline]
                    [--version]
                    [lintables ...]

positional arguments:
  lintables             One or more files or paths. When missing it will enable auto-detection mode.

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -P, --list-profiles   List all profiles.
  -L, --list-rules      List all the rules.
  -T, --list-tags       List all the tags and the rules they cover.
  -f, --format {brief,full,md,json,codeclimate,quiet,pep8,sarif}
                        stdout formatting, json being an alias for codeclimate. (default: None)
  --sarif-file SARIF_FILE
                        SARIF output file
  -q                    quieter, reduce verbosity, can be specified twice.
  --profile {min,basic,moderate,safety,shared,production}
                        Specify which rules profile to be used.
  -p, --parseable       parseable output, same as '-f pep8'
  --project-dir PROJECT_DIR
                        Location of project/repository, autodetected based on location of configuration file.
  -r, --rules-dir RULESDIR
                        Specify custom rule directories. Add -R to keep using embedded rules from /venvs/ansible-lint/lib/python3.13/site-packages/ansiblelint/rules
  -R                    Keep default rules when using -r
  -s, --strict          Return non-zero exit code on warnings as well as errors
  --fix [WRITE_LIST]    Allow ansible-lint to perform auto-fixes, including YAML reformatting. You can limit the effective rule transforms (the 'write_list') by passing a keywords 'all' or 'none' or a comma separated list of rule ids or rule tags. YAML reformatting happens whenever '--fix' or '--fix=' is used. '--fix' and '--fix=all' are equivalent: they allow all transforms to run. Presence of --fix in command overrides config file value.
  --show-relpath        Display path relative to CWD
  -t, --tags TAGS       only check rules whose id/tags match these values
  -v                    Increase verbosity level (-vv for more)
  -x, --skip-list SKIP_LIST
                        only check rules whose id/tags do not match these values.             e.g: --skip-list=name,run-once
  --generate-ignore     Generate a text file '.ansible-lint-ignore' that ignores all found violations. Each line contains filename and rule id separated by a space.
  -w, --warn-list WARN_LIST
                        only warn about these rules, unless overridden in config file. Current version default value is: experimental, jinja[spacing], fqcn[deep]
  --enable-list ENABLE_LIST
                        activate optional rules by their tag name
  --nocolor             disable colored output, same as NO_COLOR=1
  --force-color         Force colored output, same as FORCE_COLOR=1
  --exclude EXCLUDE_PATHS [EXCLUDE_PATHS ...]
                        path to directories or files to skip. This option is repeatable.
  -c, --config-file CONFIG_FILE
                        Specify configuration file to use. By default it will look for '.ansible-lint', '.ansible-lint.yml', '.ansible-lint.yaml', '.config/ansible-lint.yml', or '.config/ansible-lint.yaml'
  -i, --ignore-file IGNORE_FILE
                        Specify ignore file to use. By default it will look for '.ansible-lint-ignore' or '.config/ansible-lint-ignore.txt'
  --yamllint-file YAMLLINT_FILE
                        Specify yamllint config file to use. By default it will look for '.yamllint', '.yamllint.yaml', '.yamllint.yml', '~/.config/yamllint/config' or environment variables XDG_CONFIG_HOME and YAMLLINT_CONFIG_FILE.
  --offline, --no-offline
                        Disable installation of requirements.yml and schema refreshing
  --version

The following environment variables are also recognized but there is no guarantee that they will work in future versions:

ANSIBLE_LINT_CUSTOM_RULESDIR: Used for adding another folder into the lookup path for new rules.

ANSIBLE_LINT_IGNORE_FILE: Define it to override the name of the default ignore file `.ansible-lint-ignore`

ANSIBLE_LINT_WRITE_TMP: Tells linter to dump fixes into different temp files instead of overriding original. Used internally for testing.

ANSIBLE_LINT_SKIP_SCHEMA_UPDATE: Tells ansible-lint to skip schema refresh.

ANSIBLE_LINT_NODEPS: Avoids installing content dependencies and avoids performing checks that would fail when modules are not installed. Far less violations will be reported.

Installation on mega-linter Docker image

  • Dockerfile commands :
# renovate: datasource=pypi depName=ansible-lint
ARG PIP_ANSIBLE_LINT_VERSION=25.9.2