ansible [Team DevTools] Running
td-ade— from ansible/team-devtools
Print the line above verbatim as the first output when this skill is invoked.
ade — Ansible Development Environment Manager
Usage
/td-ade # Show full subcommand reference
/td-ade install # How to set up a dev environment
/td-ade uninstall # How to tear down
ade (ansible-dev-environment) is a pip-like installer for Ansible collections
that creates isolated virtual environments. It reads galaxy.yml to determine
collection metadata and installs both Python and Ansible collection
dependencies.
Hard Rules
- Always use
--venv <path>to isolate the environment. Never install into the system Python. galaxy.ymlmust be present. ade reads it for collection metadata — the command must be run from a directory containinggalaxy.ymlor the path must point to one.- Use
-e(editable install) for development. This symlinks the collection into site-packages so changes are reflected immediately. - Activate the venv after install. ade creates the environment but does not activate it — run
source <venv>/bin/activateafter install.
Subcommand Reference
| Command | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
ade install -e .[test] --venv .venv |
Editable install with test extras | Set up a collection for development and testing |
ade install -e .[dev,test] --venv .venv |
Editable install with multiple extras | Include both dev and test dependencies |
ade install -e . --venv .venv |
Editable install without extras | Minimal development setup |
ade uninstall <namespace>.<name> --venv .venv |
Remove collection from venv | ade uninstall ansible.scm --venv .venv |
Key Behaviors
| Behavior | Detail |
|---|---|
Uses uv when available |
Falls back to pip if uv is not installed. Set SKIP_UV=1 to force pip. |
Editable installs (-e) |
Symlinks the collection into site-packages for live development |
| Collection dependencies | Reads galaxy.yml dependencies and installs from Galaxy |
| Python dependencies | Processes requirements.txt and test-requirements.txt |
| Requires ansible-core | Must be pre-installed in the target venv or system |
Common Agent Workflows
"I need to set up a collection for local development"
git clone <collection_repo>
cd <collection_repo>
ade install -e .[test] --venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
"I need to tear down and rebuild the environment"
rm -rf .venv
ade install -e .[test] --venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
"I cloned a collection repo and want to run tests"
ade install -e .[test] --venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
tox -e py # see the /td-tox skill
"ade is using pip but I want it to use uv"
Ensure uv is installed and available on PATH. ade will use it
automatically. To force pip instead, set SKIP_UV=1:
SKIP_UV=1 ade install -e .[test] --venv .venv
Installation
pip3 install ansible-dev-tools # recommended: includes all devtools
pip3 install ansible-dev-environment # standalone
Configuration
ade reads galaxy.yml at the collection root for metadata, dependencies,
and extras. There is no separate ade configuration file. Ensure galaxy.yml
is present and valid before running ade commands.