This is a lightweight, Alpine Linux–based container that provides an isolated environment for running Ansible. It uses a Python virtual environment along with pipx to manage dependencies. This setup makes the container ideal for CI/CD pipelines and portable Ansible deployments.

Key Features:

• ✅ Mitogen enabled by default for 2-7x faster execution
• ✅ YAML inventory with localhost pre-configured
• ✅ Multi-platform support (amd64, arm64)
• ✅ Security-hardened Alpine Linux base
• ✅ Kubernetes tools included (kubectl, helm, kustomize)

To check the installed Ansible version:

docker run --rm arillso/ansible ansible-playbook --version

Mount your playbook directory and run Ansible:

docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/workspace -w /workspace arillso/ansible ansible-playbook playbook.yml

For development and debugging:

docker run --rm -it -v $(pwd):/workspace -w /workspace arillso/ansible bash

The container comes with a YAML inventory pre-configured for localhost. To use your own inventory:

# Using custom inventory file
docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/workspace -w /workspace arillso/ansible ansible-playbook -i inventory.yml playbook.yml

# Using dynamic inventory
docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/workspace -w /workspace arillso/ansible ansible-playbook -i inventory/ playbook.yml

This container includes:

• Ansible Core: Latest stable version with Mitogen optimization
• Kubernetes Tools: kubectl, helm, kustomize
• Cloud Support: Docker, OpenShift clients
• Security: SSH, GPG, SSL tools
• Utilities: jq, curl, rsync, git

This container includes Mitogen which is enabled by default for significantly faster Ansible execution:

• 2-7x faster playbook execution
• Reduced memory usage on target hosts
• Better connection pooling for multi-host deployments
• SSH pipelining enabled for additional speed
• Reliable output formatting with default callback

No configuration needed! Mitogen is pre-configured and ready to use:

# This automatically uses Mitogen for faster execution
docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/workspace -w /workspace arillso/ansible ansible-playbook playbook.yml

To use the standard linear strategy instead:

docker run --rm -e ANSIBLE_STRATEGY=linear -v $(pwd):/workspace arillso/ansible ansible-playbook playbook.yml

The container includes a pre-configured YAML inventory:

all:
  hosts:
    localhost:
      ansible_connection: local
      ansible_python_interpreter: /pipx/venvs/ansible/bin/python3

Key settings in /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg:

• Mitogen strategy enabled by default
• Host key checking disabled
• SSH pipelining enabled
• Inventory points to /etc/ansible/hosts.yml

If you prefer to build the container image yourself, you can do so using the provided Makefile. This command automatically extracts the necessary information from the requirements.txt file.

To build the image locally, run:

make ansible-build

This command will:

• Read the Ansible dependency information from requirements.txt
• Build the container image based on the Dockerfile provided
• Tag the image as ansible:latest

The image is available on multiple registries:

• GitHub Container Registry:

  docker pull ghcr.io/arillso/ansible

• Docker Hub:

  docker pull arillso/ansible

Run comprehensive tests locally:

make comprehensive-test

This includes:

• Structure tests for container integrity
• Security scans with Trivy
• Performance benchmarks
• Integration tests with Docker Compose
• Unit tests for Python components

Contributions are welcome! Here's how you can get involved:

• Report Issues: If you find any bugs or have suggestions for improvements, please open an issue on GitHub Issues.
• Submit Pull Requests: Feel free to fork the repository, make your changes, and submit a pull request. Please ensure your changes adhere to our coding standards.
• Documentation: If you have ideas for additional documentation or enhancements, please share them in an issue or via a pull request.
• Stay Updated: Follow the repository to keep up with new releases and updates.

For more detailed guidelines, please refer to the CONTRIBUTING.md file.

• Changelog: A detailed version history can be found in the CHANGELOG.md.
• Source Code: The complete project is hosted on GitHub.
• Documentation: Additional instructions and documentation are available in the repository.

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for full details.

© 2020 – 2025, Arillso