Overview

This script merely takes the output of an ansible log file and deletes the less interesting parts. IE, if all the section parts of a TASK are "ok:" then why show the section? On the other hand if a section contains "changed:" or "failed" or..., when we better show it.

See the /Features and Examples/ section below for details.

Installation

Pick one to install from pypi:

uv tool install ansible-less
pipx install ansible-less
pip install ansible-less

Usage

unbuffer ansible-playbook ... >& my.log
ansible-less my.log

Features and Examples

ansilbe-less reduces the clutter from the output of an ansible log, which is especially helpful when reviewing long runs. The following subsections gives examples of its features:

Drops TASK output with only 'ok' statuses

These are boring and you likely don't need to see when nothing changed.

[note: also drops other boring lines, like blank and date-only lines]

Aggregating "ok" and "skipping" hosts to a simple count

Hosts reporting 'ok' status for a /Task/ are aggregated into a single line:

TASK [base : base packages] ***************************************
Wednesday 17 December 2025  15:52:02 +0000 (0:00:04.372)       0:11:12.388 ****
ok: [host1.localdomain]
skipping: [host2.localdomain]
ok: [host5.localdomain]
skipping: [host6.localdomain]
changed: [host4.localdomain]
changed: [host3.localdomain]

Is changed to:

==== TASK [base : base packages]

> ok: 2 hosts
> skipping: 2 hosts
> changed: host4.localdomain:
> changed: host3.localdomain:

Aggregating similar outputs from diff or other output

When running ansible-playbook with --diff (as everyone should) it shows you the diff for every host even when they're the same. ansible-less consolidates these into a single shorter summer showing you all hosts that are the same. It modifies some lines to help consolidation, like temporary file names and atimes/mtimes second fractions.

Note: when diffs/outputs are different in any way, they aren't aggregated.

For example, this (actual diff dropped for brevity):

TASK [helper_scripts : copy in needed operational utility scripts] *********
ok: [host1.localdomain] => (item=my-script)
ok: [host2.localdomain] => (item=my-script)
ok: [host5.localdomain] => (item=my-script)
ok: [host6.localdomain] => (item=my-script)
--- before: /usr/local/bin/my-script
after: /home/hardaker/.ansible/tmp/ansible-local-129894647x9ctc5/tmpm7mt6_gh/my-script
@@ -10,7 +10,18 @@
...
changed: [host4.localdomain] => (item=my-script)
--- before: /usr/local/bin/my-script
after: /home/hardaker/.ansible/tmp/ansible-local-129894647x9ctc5/tmpm7mt6_gh/my-script
@@ -10,7 +10,18 @@
...
changed: [host4.localdomain] => (item=my-script)

To the greatly simplified:

==== TASK [helper_scripts : create needed scripts]

> ok: 4 hosts
> changed: host4.localdomain:
> changed: host3.localdomain:
 => (item=my-script)
--- before: /usr/local/bin/my-script
+++ after: /home/hardaker/.ansible/tmp/.../my-script
@@ -10,7 +10,18 @@
...

Stripping date/etc prefixes

If the log lines contain prefixes with the date/time/etc, these are stripped from the lines for better readability.

For example, this:

2025-12-17 15:41:09,848 p=1298946 u=hardaker n=ansible | TASK [take server offline]
****************************************************************************************
2025-12-17 15:41:09,848 p=1298946 u=hardaker n=ansible | Wednesday 17 December 2025
15:41:09 +0000 (0:00:02.805)       0:00:19.795 ****
2025-12-17 15:41:10,817 p=1298946 u=hardaker n=ansible | changed: [host1.localdomain] =>
(item=server)
2025-12-17 15:41:10,821 p=1298946 u=hardaker n=ansible | changed: [host2.localdomain] =>
(item=server)
2025-12-17 15:41:12,006 p=1298946 u=hardaker n=ansible | changed: [host6.localdomain] =>
(item=server)
2025-12-17 15:41:12,091 p=1298946 u=hardaker n=ansible | changed: [host5.localdomain] =>
(item=server)
2025-12-17 15:41:13,373 p=1298946 u=hardaker n=ansible | changed: [host3.localdomain] =>
(item=server)
2025-12-17 15:41:14,186 p=1298946 u=hardaker n=ansible | changed: [host4.localdomain] =>
(item=server)
2025-12-17 15:41:14,208 p=1298946 u=hardaker n=ansible | TASK [wait 3 seconds]

becomes:

==== TASK [take server offline]

> changed: host1.localdomain:
> changed: host2.localdomain:
> changed: host6.localdomain:
> changed: host5.localdomain:
> changed: host3.localdomain:
> changed: host4.localdomain:
 => (item=server)

Configuration

ansible-less has many command line options for tailoring the output, but also sports a YAML based configuration file. Run ansible-less --dump-config to see the current settings, which can be saved to a file and passed in with the --config flag.

$ ansible-less --dump-config
display:
  all_sections: false
  dont_strip_prefixes: false
  show_header: false
  show_trailer: false
  status_prefix: ':'
groupings:
  dont_group_oks: false
  dont_group_skipped: false
  dont_use_groupings: false

Testimonials

This amazing tool reduced a required post-ansible-playbook reading from 9987 lines to only 1475 lines. How did I ever live without ansible-less? -- The author