Ansible job actions

This page provides a comprehensive reference for Ansible job actions available in the workflow automation actions catalog. These actions enable you to launch and manage Ansible Automation Platform (Automation Controller) job templates.

Prerequisites

Before using Ansible actions in workflow automation, ensure you have:

An Ansible Automation Platform (Automation Controller) instance accessible over HTTPS.
An OAuth2 token with write scope to launch jobs (create one under Automation Controller > Users > Tokens).
The numeric ID of the job template you want to launch.
The ask_*_on_launch setting enabled on the job template for each optional input you plan to use (extraVars, limit, inventory).

Job actions

Launches an Ansible Automation Platform (Automation Controller) job template and returns the created job. This action builds on the http.post base action.

The endpoint is POST https://{host}/api/controller/v2/job_templates/{jobTemplateId}/launch/

Input Field	Optionality	Type	Example
host	Required	String	`${{ :secrets:host }}` Hostname (and optional port) of the Automation Controller, without scheme, for example aap.example.com.
authToken	Required	String	`${{ :secrets:ansibleControllerToken }}` OAuth2 token, sent as `Authorization: Bearer <token>`. Create under Automation Controller → Users → Tokens with write scope to launch.
jobTemplateId	Required	Int	`42`
extraVars	Optional	Map	`{"target_env": "staging", "app_version": "1.2.3"}` Mapped to `extra_vars`. Takes effect only if the template has `ask_variables_on_launch` (or a survey) enabled.
limit	Optional	String	`web-servers` Ansible host pattern. Mapped to `limit`. Requires `ask_limit_on_launch`.
inventory	Optional	String	`7` Numeric inventory ID (overrides the template default). Mapped to `inventory`. Requires `ask_inventory_on_launch`.
jobTags	Optional	String	`deploy,restart` Comma-separated tags. Mapped to `job_tags`. Requires `ask_tags_on_launch`.
skipTags	Optional	String	`notifications` Comma-separated tags to skip. Mapped to `skip_tags`. Requires `ask_skip_tags_on_launch`.
selectors	Optional	List	`[{"name": "jobId", "expression": ".id"}, {"name": "status", "expression": ".status"}]`

Output Field	Type	Example
success	Boolean	`success: true \| false`
response	Object	`{ "id": 128, "status": "pending", "job_template": 42, "url": "/api/controller/v2/jobs/128/" }`
errorMessage	String	`{ "detail": "Variables not allowed on launch." }`

Workflow example
`name: launch-ansible-remediation description: 'Launches an Ansible job template to remediate an incident.' steps: - name: launch_job type: action action: ansible.job.launch version: 1 inputs: host: ${{ :secrets:host }} authToken: ${{ :secrets:ansibleControllerToken }} jobTemplateId: "42" extraVars: target_env: staging app_version: "1.2.3" next: end`

Workflow example

name: launch-ansible-remediation
description: 'Launches an Ansible job template to remediate an incident.'
steps:
  - name: launch_job
    type: action
    action: ansible.job.launch
    version: 1
    inputs:
      host: ${{ :secrets:host }}
      authToken: ${{ :secrets:ansibleControllerToken }}
      jobTemplateId: "42"
      extraVars:
        target_env: staging
        app_version: "1.2.3"
    next: end

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Job actions

Prerequisites