User Guide

Running Playbooks

Verbosity and Debugging

Use verbosity flags to see what's happening during playbook execution:

# Standard execution - minimal output
ansible-playbook site.yml

# Verbose (-v) - show task results
ansible-playbook site.yml -v

# More verbose (-vv) - show task input and output
ansible-playbook site.yml -vv

# Very verbose (-vvv) - show variable values and function calls
ansible-playbook site.yml -vvv

# Maximum verbosity (-vvvv) - show everything including library internals
ansible-playbook site.yml -vvvv

When to use each level:

Level	Use Case
None	Production runs when you know it works
-v	Check task status, which tasks changed
-vv	See input/output, understand task behavior
-vvv	Debug variable issues, conditional logic
-vvvv	Deep debugging, plugin behavior issues

Check Mode and Diff Mode

Test playbooks without making changes:

# Check mode - simulate changes without applying
ansible-playbook site.yml --check

# Check mode + diff - show what would change
ansible-playbook site.yml --check --diff

# Diff mode only - run playbook and show changes
ansible-playbook site.yml --diff

Limited support in this collection

Check mode, diff, and change reporting are only supported in very selective scenarios (e.g. the workflow module supports check mode). RPC operations, actions, and many REST calls do not report whether they would or did make changes. Do not blindly trust --check, --diff, or changed for all tasks. See the Developer Guide for best practices and always validate in dev/staging before production.

Step-by-Step Execution

Run playbook step-by-step for debugging:

# Step through each task (press ENTER to continue)
ansible-playbook site.yml --step

# Combine with verbosity
ansible-playbook site.yml --step -vv