Callback Plugins

Callback plugins enable adding new behaviors to Ansible when responding to events. By default, callback plugins control most of the output you see when running the command line programs, but can also be used to add additional output, integrate with other tools and marshall the events to a storage backend.

Example callback plugins

The log_plays callback is an example of how to record playbook events to a log file, and the mail callback sends email on playbook failures.

The say callback responds with computer synthesized speech in relation to playbook events.

Enabling callback plugins

You can activate a custom callback by either dropping it into a callback_plugins directory adjacent to your play, inside a role, or by putting it in one of the callback directory sources configured in ansible.cfg.

Plugins are loaded in alphanumeric order. For example, a plugin implemented in a file named would run before a plugin file named

Most callbacks shipped with Ansible are disabled by default and need to be enabled in your ansible.cfg file in order to function. For example:

#callback_enabled = timer, mail, profile_roles, collection_namespace.collection_name.custom_callback

Setting a callback plugin for ansible-playbook


stdout_callback = dense

or for my custom callback:

stdout_callback = mycallback

This only affects ansible-playbook by default.

Setting a callback plugin for ad hoc commands

The ansible ad hoc command specifically uses a different callback plugin for stdout, so there is an extra setting in Ansible Configuration Settings you need to add to use the stdout callback defined above:


You can also set this as an environment variable:


Plugin list

You can use ansible-doc -t callback -l to see the list of available plugins. Use ansible-doc -t callback <plugin name> to see specific documents and examples.

See also

Action Plugins

Ansible Action plugins

Cache Plugins

Ansible cache plugins

Connection Plugins

Ansible connection plugins

Inventory Plugins

Ansible inventory plugins

Shell Plugins

Ansible Shell plugins

Strategy Plugins

Ansible Strategy plugins

Vars Plugins

Ansible Vars plugins

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