Language Server

The Ansible language server provides YAML completion, hover documentation, and diagnostics for Ansible playbooks, roles, and task files. It implements the Language Server Protocol and works with any LSP-compatible editor.

Capabilities

Feature	Description
Completion	Module names, parameter names, parameter values (choices), Jinja2 filters
Hover	Module documentation, parameter descriptions, and defaults on hover
Diagnostics	YAML syntax errors, unknown modules, missing required parameters
Semantic tokens	Syntax highlighting for Ansible-specific constructs

Getting the server

From CI artifacts

Every pull request produces a standalone language-server.js file as a CI artifact. Download it from the Actions tab.

From the plugin

If you install the Ansible DevTools Plugin, the language server is bundled at servers/language-server.js inside the plugin directory.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/ansible/vscode-ansible.git
cd vscode-ansible
git checkout next
pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
pnpm run build
# Output: dist/language-server.js (single file, ~1.3MB)

Running standalone

node language-server.js --stdio

The server communicates over stdio using JSON-RPC (standard LSP transport). It requires:

Node.js >= 20
Python 3 with ansible-core installed (for module discovery and documentation)

Editor configuration

local lspconfig = require('lspconfig')
local configs = require('lspconfig.configs')

configs.ansible_ls = {
  default_config = {
    cmd = { 'node', '/path/to/language-server.js', '--stdio' },
    filetypes = { 'yaml', 'yaml.ansible' },
    root_dir = lspconfig.util.root_pattern(
      'ansible.cfg', '.ansible-lint', 'galaxy.yml', 'playbooks/'
    ),
    settings = {
      ansible = {
        validation = { enabled = true },
        completion = { enabled = true },
      },
    },
  },
}

lspconfig.ansible_ls.setup({})

In .zed/settings.json:

{
  "lsp": {
    "ansible-language-server": {
      "binary": {
        "path": "node",
        "arguments": ["/path/to/language-server.js", "--stdio"]
      }
    }
  },
  "languages": {
    "YAML": {
      "language_servers": ["ansible-language-server"]
    }
  }
}

In ~/.config/helix/languages.toml:

[[language]]
name = "yaml"
language-servers = ["ansible-language-server"]

[language-server.ansible-language-server]
command = "node"
args = ["/path/to/language-server.js", "--stdio"]

(with-eval-after-load 'eglot
  (add-to-list 'eglot-server-programs
    '(yaml-mode . ("node" "/path/to/language-server.js" "--stdio"))))

For hosts that support the Open Plugin LSP component:

{
  "ansible-language-server": {
    "command": "node",
    "args": ["${PLUGIN_ROOT}/servers/language-server.js", "--stdio"],
    "extensionToLanguage": {
      ".yml": "yaml",
      ".yaml": "yaml"
    }
  }
}

Relationship to the VS Code extension

The VS Code extension bundles and manages the language server automatically — no manual configuration needed. The standalone server is for editors that don’t support VS Code extensions but do support LSP.

Both use the same codebase (packages/language-server/) and produce identical behavior.