ansible-lint

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Introduction

ansible-lint checks Ansible playbooks, roles and collections for practices and behaviour that could potentially be improved, and can fix some issues automatically, according to its GitHub description.

Rules cover syntax, deprecated modules, missing names on tasks, risky file permissions, command usage where a module exists, YAML formatting and more. Profiles, from min to production, let teams adopt rules progressively. A --fix mode rewrites some problems, and SARIF output feeds code scanning.

In the quality loop it is the fast static gate before Molecule integration tests.

The source code is at ansible/ansible-lint on GitHub under the GPL-3.0 licence, with about 3,900 stars; the most recent commit was on 4 November 2026.

Features

1. Rule set: Dozens of rules for syntax, style and risky patterns.
2. Profiles: Progressive strictness levels.
3. Auto-fix: Rewrite some findings automatically.
4. SARIF output: For code scanning integrations.
5. Config file: Skip or warn on chosen rules.
6. Editor support: Used by the Ansible VS Code extension.

Pros

1. Official project: Maintained by the Ansible community.
2. Free to use: Open source under the GPL-3.0 licence, so the core tool costs nothing to use.
3. Actively maintained: The repository had commits as recent as 4 November 2026.
4. Community: About 3,900 GitHub stars.

Cons

1. Opinionated: Some rules need tuning for legacy code.
2. Version coupling: Results can change with Ansible versions.
3. Static only: Does not run playbooks.

Usage and Links (Example)

pip install ansible-lint
ansible-lint --profile production
ansible-lint --fix

Resources:

• ansible-lint website
• GitHub repository

Pricing

ansible-lint is free and open source under the GPL-3.0 licence.

Recommended for?

1. Ansible teams enforcing consistent, safe playbooks.
2. Collection maintainers preparing content for release.

Conclusion

ansible-lint is the default static check for Ansible content.

Adopt a profile gradually and add Molecule for behavioural tests.

On CheckOps, ansible-lint is filed under the Release & CI gates stage. Related tools listed here include Molecule, Terratest, Test Kitchen, Molecule, Goss and Chef InSpec. Which one fits best depends mostly on your stack, your team’s size and skills, and whether you prefer to run tools yourself or pay for a managed service. This page reflects the official website, documentation and repository as they stood on 11 November 2026.