Does this work with any Ansible module?

Yes, these are native Ansible patterns that can be applied to any module, including shell, uri, systemd, and custom modules.

How does this skill handle transient network errors?

It utilizes the 'until' and 'retries' parameters to wait for services to become available or commands to succeed before marking a task as failed.

How do I provide better error messages for my team?

The skill demonstrates how to use the 'assert' and 'fail' modules with custom message strings to display context-rich, actionable information when a playbook stops.

Can I use this for automatic rollbacks in my deployments?

Yes, the skill provides patterns for using 'block' and 'rescue' to define specific recovery tasks that execute only if the primary deployment steps fail.

Ansible Error Handling

Name: Ansible Error Handling
Author: basher83

bybasher83

•

Deployment & DevOps

Implements robust error recovery, retry logic, and validation patterns for resilient Ansible playbooks and roles.

About

This skill provides a comprehensive framework for building self-healing and resilient automation within Ansible. It equips Claude with standardized patterns for using block/rescue/always structures to manage cleanups and rollbacks, implementing retry logic for transient network or service failures, and utilizing assertion modules for rigorous input validation. By applying these practices, developers can minimize manual intervention and ensure that infrastructure-as-code deployments provide clear, actionable error context when things go wrong.

Key Features

Transient failure management using until/retries logic
Assertion-based validation for environment and variable requirements
Conditional 'failed_when' logic for handling expected failures gracefully
Block/Rescue/Always execution flow for error cleanup and rollbacks
Custom failure messages for context-rich troubleshooting
5 GitHub stars

Use Cases

Pre-flight validation of infrastructure state and configuration variables
Implementing robust health checks and stabilization waits for cloud services
Automating complex application deployments with automatic rollbacks

About

Key Features

Transient failure management using until/retries logic
Assertion-based validation for environment and variable requirements
Conditional 'failed_when' logic for handling expected failures gracefully
Block/Rescue/Always execution flow for error cleanup and rollbacks
Custom failure messages for context-rich troubleshooting
5 GitHub stars

Use Cases

Pre-flight validation of infrastructure state and configuration variables
Implementing robust health checks and stabilization waits for cloud services
Automating complex application deployments with automatic rollbacks