Review playbook

review-playbook

Review an Ansible playbook and produce a structured severity report. This command never modifies files.

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Required Inputs

1. path + filename — Path to the playbook to review (resolved from discovery if not provided)

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Behavior

Step 1 — Discovery

Run discovery per references/discovery.md. Use context to:

• Locate the playbook if only a filename is given (search in ./, ./playbooks/)
• Identify available roles/collections for FQCN verification

Step 2 — Load and Analyze

Read the playbook file. Analyze every task, handler reference, role include, and play-level attribute.

Step 3 — Generate Severity Report

Produce a structured report in this exact format:

## Playbook Review: <filename>
Reviewed: <timestamp>
Plays: <count>  Tasks: <count>  Roles: <count>

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### CRITICAL
[List of critical issues — must fix before use in production]

### WARNING
[List of warnings — should fix; may cause problems under certain conditions]

### INFO
[Informational suggestions — best practices, performance hints]

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Summary: <X> critical, <Y> warnings, <Z> info

If there are no issues in a severity level, show: No issues found.

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Checks to Perform

CRITICAL checks

Check	What to look for	Message format
Bare module names	Any task using a module without FQCN prefix	[tasks:<line>] Task "<name>" uses bare module name '<module>' — must use FQCN '<ansible.builtin.module>'
Missing no_log on secrets	Tasks with password:, secret:, token:, key: arguments, or tasks referencing vault_* variables, without no_log: true	[tasks:<line>] Task "<name>" handles secret data (parameter: <param>) but is missing no_log: true
Deprecated include:	Use of bare include: (removed in ansible-core 2.12)	[tasks:<line>] Deprecated: 'include:' has been removed. Use 'ansible.builtin.include_tasks:' or 'ansible.builtin.import_tasks:'

WARNING checks

Check	What to look for	Message format
Untagged tasks	Any task without a tags: block	[tasks:<line>] Task "<name>" has no tags — add at minimum component name + action category
Shell/command without idempotency	ansible.builtin.shell or ansible.builtin.command without creates:, removes:, or changed_when:	[tasks:<line>] Task "<name>" uses shell/command without idempotency guard (creates/removes/changed_when)
Both play-level and task-level become	become: true set at play level AND again on individual tasks	[play:<name>] 'become: true' is set at play level; remove redundant task-level become declarations
Missing gather_facts declaration	Play with no explicit gather_facts:	[play:<name>] gather_facts not explicitly set — add 'gather_facts: true' or 'gather_facts: false'
Deprecated include_role without name:	ansible.builtin.include_role without explicit name: key	[tasks:<line>] include_role missing explicit 'name:' key
ignore_errors: true without justification	ignore_errors: true without adjacent comment explaining why	[tasks:<line>] Task "<name>" uses ignore_errors: true without explanation — add a comment justifying this

INFO checks

Check	What to look for	Message format
Missing playbook header	No YAML comment header with author/version	Playbook is missing a documentation header (author, version, description)
No pre_tasks assertion	First play has no version/OS assertion	Consider adding an ansible.builtin.assert in pre_tasks to verify minimum Ansible version or OS compatibility
No post_tasks validation	Play has roles but no validation post_task	Consider adding a validation post_task (wait_for, uri) to confirm deployment success
No documented validation path	Example-style playbook has no clear validation task or surrounding test guidance	Consider adding validation tasks or README guidance aligned with references/testing.md
Long play without serial	Play targeting more than one group without serial:	Play '<name>' targets multiple host groups without serial — consider serial: 1 for rolling updates
Hard-coded IP addresses	Any IP address literal in the playbook	[tasks:<line>] Hard-coded IP address '{{ ip }}' — use inventory variables or DNS names instead

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Example Output

## Playbook Review: deploy-app.yml
Reviewed: 2026-03-31T10:00:00
Plays: 2  Tasks: 8  Roles: 2

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### CRITICAL
- [play:Deploy application, tasks:line 15] Task "Restart app service" uses bare module name 'service' — must use FQCN 'ansible.builtin.service'
- [play:Deploy application, tasks:line 22] Task "Set admin password" handles secret data (parameter: password) but is missing no_log: true

### WARNING
- [play:Deploy application, tasks:line 18] Task "Run migration script" uses ansible.builtin.shell without idempotency guard (creates/removes/changed_when)
- [play:Deploy application, tasks:line 31] Task "Copy config file" has no tags — add at minimum component name + action category

### INFO
- Playbook is missing a documentation header (author, version, description)
- Consider adding a validation post_task (wait_for, uri) to confirm deployment success

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Summary: 2 critical, 2 warnings, 2 info

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Constraints

• Never modify files. This command is read-only.
• Do not suggest sed or awk commands to fix issues.
• Do not generate "fixed" versions of the playbook.
• Conclude with: "Use /ansible-designer:update-playbook to apply fixes."