Developing collections

Collections are a distribution format for Ansible content. You can package and distribute playbooks, roles, modules, and plugins using collections. A typical collection addresses a set of related use cases. For example, the cisco.ios collection automates management of Cisco IOS devices.

You can create a collection and publish it to Ansible Galaxy or to a private Automation Hub instance. You can publish certified collections to the Red Hat Automation Hub, part of the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.

Examine the Ansible collection creator path to understand how to go from creating a collection to having it included in the Ansible package distribution.

Developing new collections

• Creating collections
  • Naming your collection
  • Creating a new collection
  • Creating a collection from a custom template
  • Creating collections with ansible-creator
• Using shared resources in collections
  • Using documentation fragments in collections
  • Leveraging optional module utilities in collections
  • Listing collection dependencies
• Testing collections
  • Testing tools
• Distributing collections
  • Initial configuration of your distribution server or servers
  • Building your collection tarball
  • Preparing to publish your collection
  • Publishing your collection
• Documenting collections
  • Documenting modules and plugins
  • Documenting roles
  • Verifying your collection documentation
  • Build a docsite with antsibull-docs

Working with existing collections

• Migrating Ansible content to a different collection
  • Migrating content
• Contributing to collections
  • Contributing to a collection: community.general
• Generating changelogs and porting guide entries in a collection
  • Understanding antsibull-changelog
  • Including collection changelogs into Ansible

Collections references

• Collection structure
  • Collection directories and files
• Collection Galaxy metadata structure
  • Structure
  • Examples

For instructions on developing modules, see Developing modules.

See also

Using Ansible collections

Learn how to install and use collections in playbooks and roles

Contributing to Ansible-maintained Collections

Guidelines for contributing to selected collections

Communication

Got questions? Need help? Want to share your ideas? Visit the Ansible communication guide