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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.

Developing new collections

• Creating collections
  • Creating a collection skeleton
• 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

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 Ansible modules.

See also

Using collections

Learn how to install and use collections in playbooks and roles

Contributing to Ansible-maintained Collections

Guidelines for contributing to selected collections

Ansible Collections Overview and FAQ

Current development status of community collections and FAQ

Mailing List

The development mailing list

Real-time chat

How to join Ansible chat channels