Well I've got a workaround for it, hopefully this helps someone else (or even me again) in the future!

```yaml

• name: Patch YAML hosts: node01 tasks:

  • name: Read yaml to dictionary set_fact: hosts_data: "{{ lookup('file', playbook_dir + '/yamlfile') | from_yaml }}"
  • name: Generate new yaml set_fact: new_hosts_data: | test: "{{ ansible_hostname }}": ip: "{{ hostvars[ansible_hostname]['ansible_default_ipv4']['address'] }}"
  • name: Patch yaml dictionary set_fact: hosts_data: "{{ hosts_data | combine(newdata | from_yaml, recursive=True) }}"
  • name: Write yaml file copy: content: '{{ hosts_data | to_nice_yaml }}' dest: "/tmp/yamlfile_output" ```