# Using Ansible

Atmos natively supports opinionated workflows for [Ansible](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/index.html). Ansible provides agentless automation for configuration management, application deployment, and infrastructure orchestration.

For a complete list of supported commands, please see the Atmos [ansible](/cli/commands/ansible/usage) documentation.

## Stack Configuration

The schema for configuring Ansible components in Atmos stacks:

```yaml
components:
  ansible:
    <component_name>:
      vars: {}
      env: {}
      settings:
        ansible:
          playbook: <playbook_file>
          inventory: <inventory_source>
      metadata: {}
      command: ansible  # Base command (playbook subcommand always uses ansible-playbook)
      hooks: {}
```

## Variable Handling

Atmos generates a YAML variables file from the `vars` section and passes it to `ansible-playbook` using `--extra-vars @<filename>`. This makes all stack variables available in your playbooks.

```yaml
# Stack manifest
components:
  ansible:
    webserver:
      vars:
        app_name: myapp
        app_port: 8080
```

```yaml
# Playbook can reference these directly
- name: Deploy app
  hosts: webservers
  tasks:
    - name: Show config
      ansible.builtin.debug:
        msg: "Deploying {{ app_name }} on port {{ app_port }}"
```

## Playbook and Inventory

Configure the playbook and inventory in the stack manifest or via command line flags:

```yaml
components:
  ansible:
    webserver:
      settings:
        ansible:
          playbook: site.yml
          inventory: inventory/production
```

Command-line flags take precedence over stack manifest settings:

```bash
atmos ansible playbook webserver -s prod --playbook deploy.yml -i inventory/staging
```

## Related

- [Ansible Components in Stacks](/stacks/components/ansible) — Full configuration reference
- [Ansible CLI Configuration](/cli/configuration/components/ansible) — `atmos.yaml` settings
- [atmos ansible playbook](/cli/commands/ansible/playbook) — Command reference