What is ansible.cfg?

ansible.cfg is Ansible's main configuration file, controlling default behavior like which inventory file to use, connection settings, privilege escalation defaults, and plugin paths, so these don't need to be repeated as command-line flags on every run.

[defaults]
inventory = ./inventory/production
remote_user = deploy
host_key_checking = False
forks = 20

[privilege_escalation]
become = True
become_method = sudo

Ansible looks for this file in a defined order of precedence: an ANSIBLE_CONFIG environment variable path, then ansible.cfg in the current directory, then ~/.ansible.cfg in the user's home directory, then a system-wide /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg. Only the first one found is used (settings aren't merged across multiple files), which is why teams typically keep one project-local ansible.cfg checked into version control alongside the playbooks it configures.

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