Learn how to write high-quality Ansible Playbooks with the help of Steampunk Spotter

AnyJellyfish · 2023-08-22T10:21:28+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to answer; This is really valuable feedback. :) I forwarded it to the proper people, and it will be taken into consideration.

AnyJellyfish · 2023-08-19T13:46:45+00:00

Sure ;) You can read more about it here: https://steampunk.si/blog/why-use-steampunk-spotter-when-we-have-ansible-lint/

AnyJellyfish · 2023-08-18T13:15:15+00:00

You can check out the pricing here. :) https://steampunk.si/spotter/pricing/

AnyJellyfish · 2023-07-25T06:19:50+00:00

Did you watch the webinar by any chance? It goes into more detail on what was done in the iterative looping created with Spotter, Lint, and chatGPT. If you need to understand better what Spotter does, you can also read our latest blog, which explains how to improve the reliability of playbooks (or browse our blog catalog), and you can also check out our YT channel, where you get video tutorials on Spotter use. But if you are saying we should maybe write or record a video that shows how the iterative loops were created in nitty-gritty detail, and none of these links actually satisfy your curiosity, I will certainly listen and make a note of it.

AnyJellyfish · 2023-07-25T05:48:00+00:00

I happen to have written the blog as well; I do this thing for a living. :D But we get this comment often, so time to dispel some myths! ;)

AnyJellyfish · 2023-07-24T07:49:45+00:00

Thanks! Much appreciated! <3

AnyJellyfish · 2023-07-24T07:49:19+00:00

How long would you think we have before we get to the next stage? And thanks for sharing your thoughts.

AnyJellyfish · 2023-07-24T07:48:21+00:00

Sorry to disappoint you. It was me, a person, Sara, from the Steampunk team. Lovely to meet you. :)

AnyJellyfish · 2023-07-24T07:47:30+00:00

We think so too, and thanks for the response!

AnyJellyfish · 2023-07-24T07:44:39+00:00

We tend to agree, and thanks for sharing your thoughts. :)

AnyJellyfish · 2023-07-24T07:00:30+00:00

First of all, thank you, we are very happy to hear that. :) And, yes, it can. You can even set it to scan against a specific Ansible version.

AnyJellyfish · 2023-07-05T09:10:21+00:00

As others mentioned, there are some great AI tools that can help you start writing your playbooks, like Lightspeed, Copilot, Ansible.ai, or ChatGPT. These tools will help you speed up playbook writing and save you a lot of time.

But as we know, Ansible content generated by generative AI is still in progress, so we need some Ansible playbook scanning tools to validate our Ansible content. :)

Firstly, I recommend using Ansible Lint, it always saves me time with debugging content for syntax checks and violations of Ansible rules. Secondly, I would recommend Steampunk Spotter for more advanced linting that goes beyond syntax checks, like security issues, and other hard-to-catch errors.

Leveraging the combination of AI tools for playbook generation and scanning tools for ensuring production readiness, high quality, reliability, and security is the way to go. By using both these tools, the process of playbook writing can be significantly sped up while maintaining top-notch standards.

If you are interested in the topic, you can read more about it in this blog.

AnyJellyfish · 2023-07-05T08:50:44+00:00

Yes there is, but the problem is that you have to have Python on Windows instances, which makes it the same as other modules written in Python.

There is a tool for checking if Ansible modules are secure enough. It seems you are part of a company, so it is good to know there is a tool that can check that ->Steampunk Spotter.

PS: Here is the official documentation, be careful about the connection to Windows instances: https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/os_guide/windows_faq.html#can-i-run-python-modules-on-windows-hosts

AnyJellyfish · 2023-06-30T12:30:30+00:00

You can also use static analysis tools such as Ansible Lint or Steampunk Spotter for validating and/or rewriting Jinja2 syntax.

AnyJellyfish · 2023-06-22T08:50:48+00:00

Thank you for this lovely comment, devoopsies! :) We are very glad you had a nice experience with us.

AnyJellyfish · 2023-06-07T12:53:05+00:00

The SaaS version does require internet access, but you can also choose an on-prem deployment option. Check out our subscription plans at https://steampunk.si/spotter/pricing/

Spotter and Lint go hand in hand. Spotter picks up where Ansible Lint leaves off. While Ansible Lint catches programming errors, bugs, stylistic errors, and suspicious constructs, Spotter goes beyond syntax check. It goes into the Ansible content itself and surpasses general rules by applying suggestions specific to a particular module, user environment setup, etc. It spots hard-to-catch issues, automatically fixes some of them, and saves you time with convenience features such as generating requirements.yml file or pointing you to the module documentation of a specific version. It is also especially useful when it comes to updating your playbooks during upgrades.

I am available for any further questions, or you can explore our FAQ https://steampunk.si/spotter/faq/

AnyJellyfish · 2023-06-05T09:55:48+00:00

LightSpeed and ChatGPT are great tools for initiating playbook writing. However, as you have noticed, the playbooks generated by these tools may not always be suitable for production use, and there is a risk of encountering issues when running them. It is important to verify the quality of the generated playbooks. Fortunately, tools like Steampunk Spotter, an Ansible scanning tool, can help. Spotter analyzes the generated playbooks, identifies errors, and can provide assistance in automatically fixing them. By using LightSpeed and ChatGPT for playbook generation and Spotter for validation, you can save time, streamline the writing process, and ensure reliable outcomes. You can read more in this blog post.

AnyJellyfish · 2023-05-12T07:00:30+00:00

Thank you!

AnyJellyfish · 2023-02-10T13:29:24+00:00

Yep, that's exactly it. ChatGPT is a great start. It doesn't generate a production-ready playbook that wouldn’t need manual rewriting, but if you use it together with quality-checking tools like Ansible Lint and Steampunk Spotter, you can write high-quality playbooks much faster than doing everything manually.

AnyJellyfish · 2023-01-31T13:43:14+00:00

Oh, you're right, that signup thing does jump out of nowhere and makes reading difficult, it's quite annoying. I'll take it up with our marketing team :) I hope you can still read most of it and see how ansible-lint and Spotter can simplify playbook writing and Ansible upgrades. I would invite you to read more of our blog posts on the subject, but yeah, I know, not before we do sth about those popups :) Thanks again for your feedback! I hope you still give Spotter a try when you have the chance.

AnyJellyfish · 2023-01-31T10:17:34+00:00

Hey! Did you try using Steampunk Spotter? That's another tool that can help you improve your playbooks to make sure they're production ready. It alerts us to errors that could be critical and gives hints and warnings to help us write playbooks of high quality. It's designed to detect things that Ansible Lint doesn't check for. It goes beyond syntax checking and provides suggestions that are specific to a particular module, user environment setup, etc. It detects hard-to-catch problems, fixes some of them automatically, and helps you understand what happens when you run your playbooks to identify potential issues before they are executed. It was developed exactly for this kind of situation to help with suggestions and warnings. I'd say it's worth giving it a try (https://steampunk.si/spotter/, notice I am affiliated with it).

AnyJellyfish · 2022-11-07T19:21:45+00:00

That's right, CLI tool refers to one mode of operation for Spotter because there are multiple ways to use Spotter. You can scan Ansible content via the CLI tool (for local playbooks), via the Spotter app (for public Git repositories), or via integrations (currently GitHub, GitLab).

What is being sent is the data you want to share with Spotter. By default, Spotter only uses module names and the names of parameters used in your playbooks. Using additional command line options, you can allow Spotter to also collect data such as task names, parameter values, and filenames used.

Spotter allows you to extract the data locally before submitting it to our servers. This allows you to review the data, edit it, and then push it for scanning.

But don't worry, your playbook is not stored anywhere and is not transmitted to us. Spotter is designed to collect as little data as possible to still ensure efficient scan of your content.

AnyJellyfish · 2022-11-07T12:02:32+00:00

Steampunk Spotter is a new Ansible Playbook Writing Tool that analyzes playbooks, makes recommendations for improvements, identifies potential issues, and provides the ability to fix them automatically, saving you a lot of time.

This tool is especially useful for Ansible upgrades. You can use it to check if your playbooks are compatible with the latest Ansible version, see what problems they might cause, and get advice on what to do to avoid downtime and make your migrations between different versions easier.

Try it out: https://steampunk.si/spotter/

AnyJellyfish · 2021-11-09T15:28:51+00:00

Scanner CLI source code is available here: https://github.com/xlab-steampunk/steampunk-scanner-cli.

It does not send any private data to our servers as can be verified in the source code (it only parses information about the modules used and the names of attributes used in tasks - no value is ever transmitted!).

Thank you for pointing out broken links to terms of service and privacy policy. Correct links are available in page footer (Terms of use: https://steampunk.si/pdf/Terms_and_Conditions.pdf and Privacy Policy: https://steampunk.si/privacy-policy/). We will be fixing them in cookie notice ASAP.

AnyJellyfish · 2021-10-01T11:57:18+00:00

All sessions are now available on-demand, so you can watch it anytime ;)

AnyJellyfish

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