steampunk-spotter 1.1.7

Quality scanner for Ansible Playbooks

Steampunk Spotter CLI

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Installation
• Usage
  • Limitations
  • Authentication
  • Scanning
    • Ansible content
      • Tasks
      • Playbooks
      • Roles
      • Collections
    • Selecting the target project
    • Parsing values
    • Uploading metadata
    • Automated application of suggestions to your code
    • Suppressing check result levels
    • Exporting and importing scan payload
    • Scan configuration
    • Omitting documentation URLs from the output
  • Setting storage folder
  • Disabling colorized output
  • Setting API endpoint
  • CI/CD integrations
    • GitLab
    • GitHub
    • Others
• Development
  • Running from source
  • Building Docker image
• Acknowledgement

Introduction

Steampunk Spotter provides an Assisted Automation Writing tool that analyzes and offers recommendations for your Ansible Playbooks.

The Steampunk Spotter CLI enables the use from the console with the ability to scan Ansible content such as playbooks, roles, collections, or task files.

Installation

steampunk-spotter requires Python 3 and is available as a steampunk-spotter Python package.

$ pip install steampunk-spotter

We suggest installing the package into a clean Python virtual environment.

Usage

After the CLI is installed, you can explore its commands and options by running spotter --help. The --help/-h optional argument is also available for every command.

Limitations

The 1.1 release version of Steampunk Spotter contains the following limitations that also apply to the CLI:

• with the BASIC subscription plan, you can perform up to 50 scans/month and up to 100 tasks per each scan,
• with the PRO subscription plan you can perform up to 200 scans/month and up to 400 tasks per each scan,
• for the ENTERPRISE subscription plan, you contact us at [e-mail] to discuss your needs.

Authentication

To use CLI, you have to log in with your Steampunk Spotter user account. To log in, you should provide your username and password:

• via --username/-u and --password/-p global optional arguments;
• by setting SPOTTER_USERNAME and SPOTTER_PASSWORD environment variables.

For example:

$ spotter --username <username> --password <password> scan playbook.yaml

or:

$ export SPOTTER_USERNAME=<username>
$ export SPOTTER_PASSWORD=<password>
$ spotter scan playbook.yaml

After that, you can start scanning right away.

Scanning

The CLI spotter scan command is used for scanning Ansible content (playbooks, roles, collections, or task files) and returning back the scan results.

Ansible content

The scan command will automatically detect the type of your Ansible content and scan it. Here are some examples of running scans:

# scan task file, which contains the `tasks` section of the playbook
$ spotter scan path/to/taskfile1.yaml

# scan two playbooks
$ spotter scan path/to/playbook1.yaml path/to/playbook2.yaml

# scan multiple playbooks using glob
$ spotter scan path/to/playbook/folder/play_*.yaml

# scan two roles (scans tasks and handlers folders)
$ spotter scan path/to/role1 path/to/role2

# scan collection (scans Ansible content within roles and playbooks folders
  and playbooks at the root of collection directory)
$ spotter scan path/to/collection

# scan multiple files at once
$ spotter scan path/to/taskfile.yaml path/to/playbook.yaml 
          path/to/role path/to/collection

# scan any folder that contains Ansible content
$ spotter scan path/to/folder

The next subsections showcase some examples of scanning different types of Ansible content.

Tasks

Let us assume we have the following taskfile.yaml file:

 1 ---
 2 - name: Configure agent (Linux)
 3   include_tasks: linux/configure.yml
 4   when: ansible_facts.os_family != "Linux"
 5
 6 - name: Configure agent (Windows)
 7   include_tasks: windows/configure.yml
 8   when: ansible_facts.os_family == "Windows"

In this case, the CLI tool will report something like that back:

$ spotter scan taskfile.yaml
taskfile.yaml:1:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, such as 
  'ansible.builtin.include_tasks' instead of 'include_tasks'.
taskfile.yaml:5:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, such as 
  'ansible.builtin.include_tasks' instead of 'include_tasks'.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overall status: ERROR

Playbooks

Let us assume we have the following Ansible playbook playbook.yaml file:

 1 ---
 2 - name: Sample playbook
 3   hosts: localhost
 4
 5   collections:
 6     - sensu.sensu_go
 7     - ansible.builtin
 8
 9   tasks:
10     - name: Create local user
11       sensu.sensu_go.user:
12         name: johnmcclane
13
14     - name: OpenStack info gathering
15       openstack.cloud.os_flavor_info:
16
17     - name: Create Sensu Go user
18       user:
19         name: joe
20         password: "{{ lookup('env', 'SENSU_USER_PASSWORD') }}"
21
22     - name: Manage PHP dependencies
23       composer:
24         working-dir: /tmp
25
26     - name: Run command
27       ansible.builtin.shell: touch /tmp/lock
28
29     - name: Read-only command
30       ansible.builtin.command: ls /tmp
31       changed_when: false
32
33     - name: Print a message
34       ansible.builtin.debug:
35         msg: Hello from Ansible
36       check_mode: true

In this case, the CLI tool will report something like that back:

$ spotter scan playbook.yaml
playbook.yaml:14:7: ERROR: The openstack.cloud.os_flavor_info module is 
  deprecated. Module is deprecated. os_ prefixed module names are deprecated 
  , use openstack.cloud.compute_flavor_info
playbook.yaml:14:7: ERROR: The openstack.cloud.os_flavor_info module is 
  redirected to the openstack.cloud.compute_flavor_info module. You should 
  use fully-qualified collection name.
playbook.yaml:17:7: WARNING: Potential name clashes for user between 
  sensu.sensu_go.user, ansible.builtin.user
playbook.yaml:17:7: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, 
  such as sensu.sensu_go.user instead of user.
playbook.yaml:22:7: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, such as 
  community.general.composer instead of composer.
playbook.yaml:22:7: ERROR: working-dir is not a valid parameter in module 
  composer.
playbook.yaml:26:7: WARNING: The task does not enforce a state. Use creates or 
  removes parameters to inform Ansible under what conditions it should run 
  the command. If the executed command is enforcing the desired state by 
  itself already, use the changed_when keyword to inform Ansible when the 
  state changed. The last two options are adding a when clause to the task or 
  converting current task into a handler.
playbook.yaml:33:7: HINT: Use of module debug is discouraged in production.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overall status: ERROR

Roles

Let us assume we have an Ansible role (for example from Sensu Go Ansible Collection) with the following structure:

$ tree sensu-go/roles/backend/
sensu-go/roles/backend/
├── defaults
│   └── main.yml
├── handlers
│   └── main.yml
├── meta
│   ├── argument_specs.yml
│   └── main.yml
├── README.md
├── tasks
│   ├── configure.yml
│   ├── main.yml
│   └── start.yml
├── templates
│   └── backend.yml.j2
└── vars
    └── main.yml

In this case, the CLI tool will scan tasks and handlers and report something like that back:

$ spotter scan sensu-go/roles/backend/
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/start.yml:2:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, 
  such as ansible.builtin.service instead of service.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/start.yml:8:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, 
  such as ansible.builtin.command instead of command.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/start.yml:16:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.command instead of command.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/configure.yml:2:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.copy instead of copy.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/configure.yml:2:3: HINT: Mode 
  {{ item.mode | default(0644) }} in module copy contains variables, which is 
  not a good practice.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/configure.yml:29:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.copy instead of copy.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/configure.yml:29:3: HINT: Mode 
  {{ item.mode | default(0644) }} in module copy contains variables, which is 
  not a good practice.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/configure.yml:47:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.copy instead of copy.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/configure.yml:47:3: HINT: Mode {{ item.mode }} in 
  module copy contains variables, which is not a good practice.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/configure.yml:63:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.template instead of template.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/main.yml:2:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, 
  such as ansible.builtin.include_role instead of include_role.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/main.yml:8:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, 
  such as ansible.builtin.set_fact instead of set_fact.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/main.yml:12:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, 
  such as ansible.builtin.include_tasks instead of include_tasks.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/main.yml:15:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, 
  such as ansible.builtin.include_tasks instead of include_tasks.
sensu_go/roles/backend/handlers/main.yml:2:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.service instead of service.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overall status: ERROR

Collections

Let us assume we have an Ansible collection (for instance Sensu Go Ansible Collection) with the following structure:

$ ls -l sensu-go/
total 116
drwxrwxr-x 2 user user  4096 Sep  6 09:28 changelogs
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user  8589 Sep  6 09:28 CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user     7 Sep  6 09:28 collection.requirements
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 35148 Sep  6 09:28 COPYING
drwxrwxr-x 2 user user  4096 Sep  6 09:28 docker
drwxrwxr-x 5 user user  4096 Sep  6 09:28 docs
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user    46 Sep  6 09:28 docs.requirements
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user   529 Sep  6 09:28 galaxy.yml
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user   348 Sep  6 09:28 integration.requirements
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user  2828 Sep  6 09:28 Makefile
drwxrwxr-x 2 user user  4096 Sep  6 09:28 meta
drwxrwxr-x 7 user user  4096 Sep  6 09:28 plugins
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user    31 Sep  6 09:28 pytest.ini
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user  1415 Sep  6 09:28 README.md
drwxrwxr-x 5 user user  4096 Sep 28 10:20 roles
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user   182 Sep  6 09:28 sanity.requirements
drwxrwxr-x 5 user user  4096 Sep  6 09:28 tests
drwxrwxr-x 2 user user  4096 Sep  6 09:28 tools
drwxrwxr-x 3 user user  4096 Sep  6 09:28 vagrant

In this case, the CLI tool will scan roles and playbooks folders and any task files or playbooks at the root of the collection and report something like that back:

$ spotter scan sensu-go/
sensu_go/playbooks/playbook.yaml:17:7: WARNING: Potential name clashes for 
  user between sensu.sensu_go.user, ansible.builtin.user
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/start.yml:2:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, 
  such as ansible.builtin.service instead of service.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/start.yml:8:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, 
  such as ansible.builtin.command instead of command.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/start.yml:16:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.command instead of command.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/configure.yml:2:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.copy instead of copy.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/configure.yml:2:3: HINT: 
  Mode {{ item.mode | default(0644) }} in module copy contains variables 
  , which is not a good practice.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/configure.yml:29:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.copy instead of copy.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/configure.yml:29:3: HINT: Mode 
  {{ item.mode | default(0644) }} in module copy contains variables, which is 
  not a good practice.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/configure.yml:47:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.copy instead of copy.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/configure.yml:47:3: HINT: Mode {{ item.mode }} in 
  module copy contains variables, which is not a good practice.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/configure.yml:63:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.template instead of template.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/main.yml:2:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, 
  such as ansible.builtin.include_role instead of include_role.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/main.yml:8:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, 
  such as ansible.builtin.set_fact instead of set_fact.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/main.yml:12:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, 
  such as ansible.builtin.include_tasks instead of include_tasks.
sensu_go/roles/backend/tasks/main.yml:15:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, 
  such as ansible.builtin.include_tasks instead of include_tasks.
sensu_go/roles/backend/handlers/main.yml:2:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.service instead of service.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/packages.yml:2:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.include_tasks instead of include_tasks.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/packages.yml:6:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.include_tasks instead of include_tasks.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/repositories.yml:2:3: ERROR: Use a 
  fully-qualified name, such as ansible.builtin.include_tasks instead of 
  include_tasks.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/main.yml:2:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, 
  such as ansible.builtin.include_tasks instead of include_tasks.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/main.yml:6:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, 
  such as ansible.builtin.include_tasks instead of include_tasks.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/yum/install.yml:4:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.yum instead of yum.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/yum/prepare.yml:2:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.include_vars instead of include_vars.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/yum/prepare.yml:5:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.yum_repository instead of yum_repository.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/yum/prepare.yml:19:3: ERROR: Use a 
  fully-qualified name, such as ansible.builtin.yum_repository instead of 
  yum_repository.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/msi/install.yml:2:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.assert instead of assert.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/msi/install.yml:10:3: ERROR: Use a 
  fully-qualified name, such as ansible.builtin.include_vars instead of 
  include_vars.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/msi/install.yml:14:3: ERROR: Use a 
  fully-qualified name, such as ansible.builtin.assert instead of assert.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/msi/install.yml:21:3: ERROR: Use a 
  fully-qualified name, such as ansible.builtin.set_fact instead of set_fact.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/msi/install.yml:27:3: ERROR: Use a 
  fully-qualified name, such as ansible.builtin.set_fact instead of set_fact.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/msi/install.yml:31:3: ERROR: Use a 
  fully-qualified name, such as ansible.windows.win_package instead of 
  win_package.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/apt/install.yml:2:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.apt instead of apt.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/apt/install.yml:2:3: WARNING: Use of parameter 
  name is deprecated in module apt. The new alternative is parameter package.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/apt/prepare.yml:2:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.include_vars instead of include_vars.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/apt/prepare.yml:5:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.apt instead of apt.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/apt/prepare.yml:12:3: ERROR: Use a 
  fully-qualified name, such as ansible.builtin.apt instead of apt.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/apt/prepare.yml:12:3: WARNING: Use of parameter 
  name is deprecated in module apt. The new alternative is parameter package.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/apt/prepare.yml:20:3: ERROR: Use a 
  fully-qualified name, such as ansible.builtin.uri instead of uri.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/apt/prepare.yml:34:3: ERROR: Use a 
  fully-qualified name, such as ansible.builtin.apt_key instead of apt_key.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/apt/prepare.yml:38:3: ERROR: Use a 
  fully-qualified name, such as ansible.builtin.apt_repository instead of
  apt_repository.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/apt/prepare.yml:44:3: ERROR: Use a 
  fully-qualified name, such as ansible.builtin.apt_repository instead of
  apt_repository.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/dnf/install.yml:4:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.dnf instead of dnf.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/dnf/prepare.yml:2:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.include_vars instead of include_vars.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/dnf/prepare.yml:5:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.yum_repository instead of yum_repository.
sensu_go/roles/install/tasks/dnf/prepare.yml:19:3: ERROR: Use a 
  fully-qualified name, such as ansible.builtin.yum_repository instead of 
  yum_repository.
sensu_go/roles/agent/tasks/start.yml:2:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, 
  such as ansible.builtin.service instead of service.
sensu_go/roles/agent/tasks/start.yml:9:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, 
  such as ansible.windows.win_service instead of win_service.
sensu_go/roles/agent/tasks/configure.yml:2:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.include_tasks instead of include_tasks.
sensu_go/roles/agent/tasks/configure.yml:6:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified 
  name, such as ansible.builtin.include_tasks instead of include_tasks.
sensu_go/roles/agent/tasks/main.yml:2:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, 
  such as ansible.builtin.include_role instead of include_role.
sensu_go/roles/agent/tasks/main.yml:8:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, 
  such as ansible.builtin.set_fact instead of set_fact.
sensu_go/roles/agent/tasks/main.yml:12:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, 
  such as ansible.builtin.include_tasks instead of include_tasks.
sensu_go/roles/agent/tasks/main.yml:15:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, 
  such as ansible.builtin.include_tasks instead of include_tasks.
sensu_go/roles/agent/tasks/windows/configure.yml:2:3: ERROR: Use a 
  fully-qualified name, such as ansible.builtin.include_vars instead of 
  include_vars.
sensu_go/roles/agent/tasks/windows/configure.yml:5:3: ERROR: Use a 
  fully-qualified name, such as ansible.windows.win_copy instead of win_copy.
sensu_go/roles/agent/tasks/windows/configure.yml:11:3: ERROR: Use a 
  fully-qualified name, such as ansible.windows.win_template instead of 
  win_template.
sensu_go/roles/agent/tasks/linux/configure.yml:2:3: ERROR: Use a 
  fully-qualified name, such as ansible.builtin.include_vars instead of 
  include_vars.
sensu_go/roles/agent/tasks/linux/configure.yml:5:3: ERROR: Use a 
  fully-qualified name, such as ansible.builtin.copy instead of copy.
sensu_go/roles/agent/tasks/linux/configure.yml:15:3: ERROR: Use a 
  fully-qualified name, such as ansible.builtin.template instead of template.
sensu_go/roles/agent/handlers/main.yml:2:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, 
  such as ansible.builtin.service instead of service.
sensu_go/roles/agent/handlers/main.yml:8:3: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, 
  such as ansible.windows.win_service instead of win_service.
sensu_go/playbooks/playbook.yaml:10:7: ERROR: Cannot find module usr 
  information in the database. Is this a custom module not published on 
  Ansible Galaxy?
sensu_go/playbooks/playbook.yaml:14:7: ERROR: The 
  openstack.cloud.os_flavor_info module is deprecated. Module is deprecated 
  . os_ prefixed module names are deprecated, use openstack.cloud 
  .compute_flavor_info
sensu_go/playbooks/playbook.yaml:14:7: ERROR: The 
  openstack.cloud.os_flavor_info module is redirected to the openstack.cloud 
  .compute_flavor_info module. You should use fully-qualified collection name.
sensu_go/playbooks/playbook.yaml:17:7: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, such 
  as sensu.sensu_go.user instead of user.
sensu_go/playbooks/playbook.yaml:22:7: ERROR: Use a fully-qualified name, such 
  as community.general.composer instead of composer.
sensu_go/playbooks/playbook.yaml:22:7: ERROR: working-dir is not a valid 
  parameter in module composer.
sensu_go/playbooks/playbook.yaml:26:7: WARNING: The task does not enforce a 
  state. Use creates or removes parameters to inform Ansible under what 
  conditions it should run the command. If the executed command is enforcing 
  the desired state by itself already, use the changed_when keyword to inform 
  Ansible when the state changed. The last two options are adding a when 
  clause to the task or converting current task into a handler.
sensu_go/playbooks/playbook.yaml:33:7: HINT: Use of module debug is 
  discouraged in production.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overall status: ERROR

Selecting the target project

This part is only relevant for users with a PRO plan or higher.

By default, the scan results are stored in the first project of the user's first organization (in the app).

Users that have multiple organizations or projects in the app can use --project-id optional argument to specify the UUID of an existing target project, where the scan result will be stored.

$ spotter scan --project-id <project-id> .

You can learn your project id by logging into the app, selecting the appropriate organization and navigating to the project's dashboard.

Uploading values

By default, CLI parses Ansible YAML content without any parameter values. With values, we can discover additional tips for improvements, so if you want to parse and send the values, you can use --upload-values optional argument.

$ spotter scan --upload-values playbook.yaml

Uploading metadata

By default, CLI collects and uses metadata (file names, line and column numbers, YAML markers) from Ansible content just for displaying the scan output, which means that no data about your Ansible content structure is sent
to the backend server. For enriched user experience in the app and to get additional tips for improvements, you can use --upload-metadata optional argument to send the metadata.

$ spotter scan --upload-metadata playbook.yaml

Automated application of suggestions to your code

There is also a --rewrite optional argument that rewrites your files with fixes after scanning. This action will modify your files.

$ spotter scan --rewrite playbook.yaml

Suppressing check result levels

You can use --display-level optional argument for suppressing check result levels. For example, to show only errors (suppress warnings and hints):

$ spotter scan --display-level error playbook.yaml 

Exporting and importing scan payload

To see what data is collected from your Ansible content and sent to the backend server, you can use the optional --export-payload argument.

$ spotter scan --export-payload payload.json playbook.yaml 
Scan data saved to payload.json.
Note: this operation is fully offline. No actual scan was executed.

After that you can also import (with --import-payload optional argument) the exported payload and scan it:

$ spotter scan --import-payload payload.json

Scan configuration

Before scanning, it is possible to configure the environment via the configuration file or optional CLI variables. By default, the CLI runs local discovery of the user's environment.

Currently, the supported variables for configuration file and options are:

• ansible_version - sets target Ansible version

When --config optional argument is used, the variables specified in JSON/YAML config file will overwrite the ones from local discovery. For instance, if we want to overwrite the target Ansible version, we can use the following JSON config file:

{
  "ansible_version": "2.9"
}

And after that we can run the scan command:

$ spotter scan --config config.json playbook.yaml

We can also use --option optional argument that will overwrite local discovery and config file. After --option optional argument, the user should provide configuration via key=value pairs. For instance, if we want to set the Ansible version, we can use the following command:

# scan Ansible playbooks
$ spotter scan --option ansible_version=2.9 playbook.yaml

Omitting documentation URLs from the output

In the scan output, the CLI will display an URL to the relevant Ansible content documentation in whenever possible. To omit these documentation URLs from all the output, use --no-docs-url optional argument.

$ spotter scan --no-docs-url playbook.yaml

Setting storage folder

The CLI uses local storage for caching access tokens for the Steampunk Spotter API. The default location is ~/.config/steampunk-spotter, but if you want to change it you can use --storage-path optional argument.

$ spotter --storage-path /my/project/.storage scan playbook.yaml

Disabling colorized output

The CLI will colorize the scan output by default. To make the output non-colorized use --no-colors option.

$ spotter --no-colors scan playbook.yaml

Setting API endpoint

The CLI connects to Steampunk Spotter API (backend server) to perform scanning. The default API endpoint is already set, but if you ever need to change it, you can do this by setting SPOTTER_ENDPOINT environment variable:

$ export SPOTTER_ENDPOINT=<spotter-api-url>

CI/CD integrations

The CLI can be used in CI/CD pipelines to set up quality scanning of your Ansible content.

When using the CLI in CI/CD workflows, it is important that you provide Steampunk Spotter credentials as secrets (i.e., pipeline-protected and masked variables).

GitLab

The CLI can be integrated with GitLab CI/CD to display scan results as GitLab’s unit test reports. This means that you will be quickly able to see which checks have failed within your CI/CD pipeline.

This is done by using Spotter CLI tool directly in the CI/CD configuration and configuring it to output your scan result in JUnit XML format, which allows GitLab to display check results as green check marks for successful checks and red crosses for unsuccessful checks. To do so, you should use spotter scan CLI command along with --junit-xml <path-junit-xml> optional argument that will create JUnit XML report at the specified location.

Below is a .gilab-ci.yaml example containing a CI job for the test stage, where you call the aforementioned CLI command and then upload the created JUnit report format XML file as an artifact to GitLab, which will then display it within your pipeline details page or merge request widget.

stages:
  - test

spotter-scan:
  stage: test
  image:
    name: registry.gitlab.com/xlab-steampunk/steampunk-spotter-client/spotter-cli:1.1.0
    entrypoint: [""]
  variables:
    SPOTTER_USERNAME: $SPOTTER_USERNAME
    SPOTTER_PASSWORD: $SPOTTER_PASSWORD
  script:
    - spotter scan --junit-xml report.xml .
  artifacts:
    when: always
    reports:
      junit: report.xml

GitHub

In your CI/CD pipeline, you can specify the name of the Steampunk Spotter GitHub Action (xlab-steampunk/spotter-action@master) with a tag number as a step within your YAML workflow file.

For example, inside your .github/workflows/ci.yml file, you can do:

name: test
on: push
jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout this repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Run Ansible content scan
        uses: ./
        env:
          SPOTTER_USERNAME: ${{ secrets.SPOTTER_USERNAME }}
          SPOTTER_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.SPOTTER_PASSWORD }}

For comprehensive usage and more examples refer to Steampunk Spotter Action on GitHub Marketplace and Steampunk Spotter GitHub Action repository.

Others

For other CI/CDs, we currently only support using the steampunk-spotter Python package and setting it up as a regular shell command. You can also use spotter-cli Docker image that is available in our GitLab Registry (use registry.gitlab.com/xlab-steampunk/steampunk-spotter-client/spotter-cli:latest image path and select the appropriate tag). You can use spotter scan CLI command along with --junit-xml <path-junit-xml> optional argument to export scan result in JUnit XML format, which is consumed by some CI tools such as Jenkins or Bamboo.

Development

You will first need to clone this repository.

$ git clone https://gitlab.com/xlab-steampunk/steampunk-spotter-client/spotter-cli
$ cd spotter-cli

Running from source

If you want to run directly from the source, run the following commands:

$ python3 -m venv .venv && . .venv/bin/activate
$ pip install -e .

Building Docker image

Before building the Docker image, copy the wheel file distribution to the root of this repository. Make sure that you have only one *.whl file. You can build the wheel yourself or download one from the latest CI/CD pipeline. After that, proceed with the following commands:

$ docker build -t spotter-cli .

After that, you will be able to run scanning in a Docker container. You can mount your Ansible content to the default /scan working directory. The credentials can be specified as environment variables for the Docker container or later via --username and --password CLI optional arguments.

docker run --rm -it -e SPOTTER_USERNAME=<username> -e SPOTTER_PASSWORD=<password> -v "/path/to/your/playbooks/:/scan" spotter-cli scan .

Acknowledgement

This tool was created by XLAB Steampunk, IT automation specialist and leading expert in building Enterprise Ansible Collections.