Hi there! I'm Maneshwar. Right now, I’m building LiveAPI, a first-of-its-kind tool that helps you automatically index API endpoints across all your repositories. LiveAPI makes it easier to discover, understand, and interact with APIs in large infrastructures.
Let’s explore six powerful tools that fit right into your Ansible toolkit—complete with features, strengths, and real-world use cases.
1. AWX — The Web UI & API Layer for Ansible
ansible
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awx
AWX provides a web-based user interface, REST API, and task engine built on top of Ansible. It is one of the upstream projects for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.
Caution
The last release of this repository was released on Jul 2, 2024 Releases of this project are now paused during a large scale refactoring. For more information, follow the Forum and - more specifically - see the various communications on the matter:
AWX provides a web-based user interface, REST API, and task engine built on top of Ansible. It is one of the upstream projects for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.
To install AWX, please view the Install guide.
To learn more about using AWX, view the AWX docs site.
The AWX Project Frequently Asked Questions can be found here.
The AWX logos and branding assets are…
What it does: Provides a GUI, REST API, task engine, RBAC, inventory management, and job scheduling—fully open-source.
Why it matters: Ideal for managing multi-tier deployments, delegating roles, or building internal catalogs.
AWX is the upstream version of Red Hat’s Ansible Automation Platform, offering enterprise-grade features in a community-supported stack.
Pro tip: Take advantage of its provisioning callback to dynamically trigger playbooks as hosts spin up—perfect for autoscaling scenarios .
2. Semaphore — A Lightweight Go Alternative
semaphoreui
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semaphore
Modern UI and powerful API for Ansible, Terraform/OpenTofu/Terragrunt, PowerShell and other DevOps tools.
Semaphore UI
Modern UI for Ansible, Terraform/OpenTofu/Terragrunt, PowerShell and other DevOps tools.
If your project has grown and deploying from the terminal is no longer feasible, then Semaphore UI is the tool you need.
Gratitude
Thank you, Stefan and steadfasterX, for supporting the project. Your support is invaluable.
Thank you, Thomas and Brian, for excellent contriubutions. You solved issues that no one else would have taken on.
What is Semaphore UI?
Semaphore UI is a modern web interface for managing popular DevOps tools.
Semaphore UI allows you to:
- Easily run Ansible playbooks, Terraform and OpenTofu code, as well as Bash and PowerShell scripts.
- Receive notifications about failed tasks.
- Control access to your deployment system.
Key Concepts
- Projects is a collection of related resources, configurations, and tasks.
- Task Templates are reusable definitions of tasks that can be executed on demand or scheduled.
- Task is a specific instance of a…
What it does: A minimalistic control panel for launching Ansible playbooks.
Why it matters: Faster to deploy than AWX; great if you want clean UI and pipeline support without the complexity of Tower/AWX.
3. ansible-lint — Enforce Playbook Quality Automatically
ansible
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ansible-lint
ansible-lint checks playbooks for practices and behavior that could potentially be improved and can fix some of the most common ones for you
Ansible-lint
ansible-lint checks playbooks for practices and behavior that could
potentially be improved. As a community-backed project ansible-lint supports
only the last two major versions of Ansible.
Visit the Ansible Lint docs site
Using ansible-lint as a GitHub Action
This action allows you to run ansible-lint on your codebase without having to
install it yourself.
# .github/workflows/ansible-lint.yml
name: ansible-lint
on:
pull_request:
branches: ["main", "stable", "release/v*"]
jobs:
build:
name: Ansible Lint # Naming the build is important to use it as a status check
runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Run ansible-lint
uses: ansible/ansible-lint@main # or vX.X.X version
# optional (see below):
with:
args: ""
gh_action_ref: "<version - e.g. `v25.5.0`>" # Not recommended for non-composite action use
setup_python: "true"
working_directory: ""
requirements_file: ""
By…
What it does: Analyzes playbooks, roles, and collections to enforce best practices and detect errors.
Why it matters: Just goes beyond syntax checking—catches insecure practices, enforces conventions, and keeps your code CI pipeline clean..
Edge case warning: Expect some false positives—custom rule tuning can help .
4. ansible-cmdb — From Facts to HTML Dashboards
fboender
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ansible-cmdb
Generate host overview from ansible fact gathering output
Ansible Configuration Management Database
About
Ansible-cmdb takes the output of Ansible's fact gathering and converts it into a static HTML overview page (and other things) containing system configuration information.
It supports multiple types of output (html, csv, sql, etc) and extending information gathered by Ansible with custom data. For each host it also shows the groups, host variables, custom variables and machine-local facts.
HTML example output.
Features
(Not all features are supported by all templates)
- Multiple formats / templates
- Fancy HTML (
--template html_fancy), as seen in the screenshots above. - Fancy HTML Split (
--template html_fancy_split), with each host's details in a separate file (for large number of hosts). - CSV (
--template csv), the trustworthy and flexible comma-separated format. - JSON (
--template json), a dump of all facts in JSON format. - Markdown (
--template markdown), useful for copy-pasting into Wiki's and such. - Markdown Split (…
- Fancy HTML (
What it does: Aggregates Ansible fact gathering into static HTML (or CSV/SQL) system overviews.
Why it matters: Provides a clean snapshot of your infrastructure with all host variables and group data—ideal for documentation or audits.
Bonus: Supports multiple formats—easy to integrate into internal portals.
5. ARA (Ansible Run Analysis) — Insightful Reporting Tool
ansible-community
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ara
ARA Records Ansible and makes it easier to understand and troubleshoot.
ARA Records Ansible
ARA Records Ansible and makes it easier to understand and troubleshoot.
It is another recursive acronym with a focus on simplicity.
About ara
ara provides Ansible reporting by recording ansible and ansible-playbook commands regardless of how and where they run:
- from most Linux distributions and even on Mac OS (as long as
python >= 3.8is available) - from tools that run Ansible like ansible-(pull|test|runner|navigator), AWX & Automation Controller (Tower), Molecule and Semaphore
- from a terminal, a script or by hand
- from a laptop, desktop, server, virtual machine, container or execution environment
- from CI/CD platforms such as Jenkins, Rundeck and Zuul
- from git forges like GitHub, GitLab, Gitea & Forgejo
The recorded results are available via an included CLI, a REST API as well as a self-hosted, local-first web reporting interface.
demo.mp4
How it works
ARA Records Ansible results to SQLite, MySQL and PostgreSQL databases with a standard…
What it does: Records playbook runs, provides a REST API, and builds dashboards of success/failures/call stacks.
Why it matters: Perfect for debugging, CI visibility, and team transparency.
Heavily used in OpenStack CI to record millions of runs.
Enterprise benefit: Aggregated logs from many pipelines/hosts into one centralized dashboard.
6. ansible-runner — Code-Friendly Execution Wrapper
ansible
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ansible-runner
A tool and python library that helps when interfacing with Ansible directly or as part of another system whether that be through a container image interface, as a standalone tool, or as a Python module that can be imported. The goal is to provide a stable and consistent interface abstraction to Ansible.
Ansible Runner
Ansible Runner is a tool and Python library that helps when interfacing with Ansible directly or as part of another system. Ansible Runner works as a standalone tool, a container image interface, or a Python module that can be imported. The goal is to provide a stable and consistent interface abstraction to Ansible.
See the latest documentation for usage details.
Get Involved
- GitHub issues to track bug report and feature ideas
- GitHub Milestones to track what's for the next release
- Want to contribute? Please check out our contributing guide
- Visit the Community section of the docs.
- See the Ansible communication guide for complete information about getting in touch.
What it does: Encapsulates runs with structured environment, works standalone or as Python/CICD component.
Why it matters: When integrating Ansible with tools (Python apps, Jenkins, Tekton), ansible-runner ensures consistent behavior without shell-scripting headaches.
🧩 Bringing It All Together: A Real-World Flow
- Develop & validate code → Use ansible-lint to enforce standards early.
- Run via Runner → Launch playbooks programmatically with ansible-runner.
- Log & report → Collect outputs with ARA for CI and team visibility.
- Share & orchestrate → Execute and monitor via AWX or Semaphore UI.
- Document infrastructure → Generate snapshots using ansible-cmdb.
Why This Stack Works for Developers
| Aspect | Tool(s) | Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Code quality | ansible-lint | Avoid bugs and insecure practices |
| Integration | ansible-runner | Seamless CI or Python control |
| Observability | ARA | Centralized visibility and analytics |
| Orchestration UI | AWX/Semaphore | Visibility, RBAC, scheduling |
| Infrastructure docs | ansible-cmdb | Up-to-date host summaries |
TL;DR
- AWX brings UI, scheduling, and inventory management.
- Semaphore offers a lightweight alternative.
- ansible-lint keeps your code clean, consistent, and secure.
- ansible-cmdb turns facts into infrastructure snapshots.
- ARA gives you run-level insights and history.
- ansible-runner is the glue for integrating Ansible under code.
📚 Sources
- Ansible AWX community documentation
- Understanding Ansible, AWX, and Ansible Automation Platform
- Ansible (software) on Wikipedia
- Ansible Lint - Red Hat Blog
- Ansible-CMDB Documentation
- ARA Reporting - Medium by Luca Berton
- Ansible Runner - CNCF Blog
Start by embedding these tools into your existing Ansible pipelines—add linting, structured runner calls, and centralized reporting.
Then layer on UI orchestration and documentation where it makes sense. Happy automating!
LiveAPI helps you get all your backend APIs documented in a few minutes.
With LiveAPI, you can generate interactive API docs that allow users to search and execute endpoints directly from the browser.
If you're tired of updating Swagger manually or syncing Postman collections, give it a shot.
Top comments (4)
I really like such tool posts. Everytime I discover new and new ways to automate my workflow. Of cource, I don't use all of them at once. I may even never use some of them.
The point is you never know, it's good to educate yourself and just to be aware that there is such a tool. Maybe in the future, who knows... :)
Thanks V
Love how you break down each tool’s sweet spot - connecting automation with better documentation is underrated. Have you found a good way to sync API docs from flows like these directly into CI/CD?
Thanks.
Not yet