ansible-inventory

Inspect and display inventory data

TLDR

List all hosts in inventory

$ ansible-inventory --list

Show graph of inventory

$ ansible-inventory --graph

Show host details

$ ansible-inventory --host [hostname]

Use specific inventory

$ ansible-inventory -i [inventory.ini] --list

Output in YAML format

$ ansible-inventory --list --yaml

List hosts matching pattern

$ ansible-inventory --graph [webservers]

SYNOPSIS

ansible-inventory [-i inventory] [--list|--graph|--host host]

ansible-inventory inspects and displays Ansible inventory data. It shows how Ansible interprets your inventory, including dynamic inventories, group memberships, and host variables.
This tool is useful for debugging inventory configurations and understanding the effective inventory structure that Ansible will use.

PARAMETERS

--list

Output all hosts in JSON format

--graph

Output inventory as tree graph

--host hostname

Output variables for specific host

-i inventory

Inventory source

--yaml

Output in YAML format

--vars

Include host/group variables in output

--export

Output compatible with inventory plugins

-y

YAML output (shorthand for --yaml)

--playbook-dir path

Set playbook directory for relative paths

CONFIGURATION

/etc/ansible/hosts

Default inventory file listing managed hosts and groups.

/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg

System-wide Ansible configuration, including default inventory path.

~/.ansible.cfg

Per-user Ansible configuration overriding system defaults.

ansible.cfg

Project-level configuration in the current directory, highest priority.

CAVEATS

Dynamic inventories are evaluated when this command runs. Large inventories may produce extensive output. Variables shown are pre-evaluation (no Jinja2 templating).

HISTORY

ansible-inventory was introduced in Ansible 2.4 (2017) to provide better inventory inspection capabilities, replacing ad-hoc methods of debugging inventory issues.