Ansible Know MCP Server

Module discovery, documentation search, and skill generation for AI agents via the Model Context Protocol.

What It Does

Ansible Know is the foundational "learn" layer for AI agents working with Ansible. It provides:

• Module discovery — search and explore Ansible modules across all installed collections
• Module documentation — get structured parameter specs, examples, and metadata
• Documentation search — find conceptual guides from Ansible's AI-friendly docs
• Skill generation — create ready-to-use skill packages that teach agents how to use specific modules
• Collection manifests — get collection-level overviews with per-module summaries
• Resources — browse skills and doc sources as MCP resources
• Prompts — pre-built templates for playbook review, module explanation, and role generation

Together with Ansible Devtools MCP (build) and AAP MCP (deploy), this enables the full autonomous cycle: learn -> build -> deploy.

 Agent's MCP servers:

 +-----------------------+  +-------------------+  +---------------+
 | Ansible Know          |  | Ansible Devtools  |  |   AAP MCP     |
 | (this project)        |  |                   |  |               |
 |                       |  |                   |  |               |
 | search_modules        |  | ansible_lint      |  | controller.*  |
 | get_module_doc        |  | ansible_navigator |  | eda.*         |
 | get_collection_       |  | ansible_create_*  |  | gateway.*     |
 |   manifest            |  | build_ee          |  | galaxy.*      |
 | search_docs           |  | zen_of_ansible    |  |               |
 | generate_skill        |  | setup_environment |  |               |
 | generate_collection   |  | environment_info  |  |               |
 | list_skills           |  |                   |  |               |
 | get_skill             |  |                   |  |               |
 |                       |  |                   |  |               |
 | LEARN                 |  | BUILD             |  | DEPLOY        |
 +-----------------------+  +-------------------+  +---------------+

Installation

Using uvx (recommended):

uvx ansible-know-mcp

Using pip:

pip install ansible-know-mcp

Runtime requirement: ansible-core must be installed in the same environment (for ansible-doc).

Usage

With Claude Code

claude mcp add ansible-know -- uvx ansible-know-mcp

To make it available in all projects:

claude mcp add --scope user ansible-know -- uvx ansible-know-mcp

With VS Code / Cursor

Add to .vscode/mcp.json in your workspace:

{
  "servers": {
    "ansible-know": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["ansible-know-mcp"],
      "type": "stdio"
    }
  }
}

With any MCP client

The server runs over stdio by default:

uvx ansible-know-mcp

Full stack configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ansible-know":     { "command": "uvx", "args": ["ansible-know-mcp"] },
    "ansible-devtools": { "command": "ade", "args": ["mcp"] },
    "aap":              { "command": "aap-mcp-server" }
  }
}

Tools

Discovery (read-only)

Tool	Description
search_modules(keyword, namespace?)	Find modules by keyword in name or description. Returns up to 50 matches.
get_module_doc(module_name)	Get full structured docs: params, examples, API detection.
search_docs(query, source?, topic?, audience?, core_only?)	Search documentation manifests for conceptual guides. Returns up to 20 matches.
get_collection_manifest(collection_namespace)	Get collection-level manifest with per-module summaries.

Skill management

Tool	Description
list_skills()	List all generated skills (read-only).
get_skill(skill_name)	Read a skill's SKILL.md content (read-only).
generate_skill(module_name, install_to?)	Generate a skill package for one module. Returns SKILL.md inline.
generate_collection_skills(collection_namespace, install_to?)	Batch generate skills for an entire collection.

Resources

URI	Description
skills://list	List all generated skill packages
skills://{skill_name}	Read a skill's SKILL.md content by FQCN
docs://sources	List configured documentation manifest sources

Prompts

Prompt	Description
review_playbook(playbook_yaml)	Review a playbook against module docs and best practices
explain_module(module_name)	Get a detailed module explanation with usage examples
generate_role(role_purpose, modules)	Generate a role skeleton using specified modules

Development

git clone https://github.com/leogallego/ansible-know-mcp.git
cd ansible-know-mcp
uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest

Configuration

Environment Variable	Description	Default
ANSIBLE_KNOWLEDGE_SKILLS_DIR	Where to write generated skills	./skills/
ANSIBLE_KNOWLEDGE_DOC_SOURCES	JSON dict of doc manifest sources	Built-in ansible-core source

License

GPL-3.0-or-later