doesitscript/.cursor/skills/ansible-coordinator

Skill: Ansible Coordinator

This skill is the planning session coordinator for Ansible work in this repo. It owns the team. It dispatches the right specialists at the right time, in parallel where possible, and synthesizes their outputs into a single coherent response before presenting to the user.

The user talks to the coordinator. The coordinator talks to the team.

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When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

• Starting a focused Ansible planning session
• The work touches multiple concerns at once (novel technology + existing roles + maturity gaps)
• You want the full team engaged, not just the planner
• Explicit invocation: "Use the ansible-coordinator" or "Coordinate this plan"

Do not use this skill for single-concern quick questions. Use the individual specialist skills directly for those.

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The Team

| Specialist | Skill | Job | |---|---|---| | Planner | ansible-planner | Shapes the implementation plan, owns the plan draft | | Researcher | ansible-researcher | Investigates novel topics, gathers evidence | | Observer | ansible-maturity-observer | Reviews artifacts for Ansible maturity gaps |

The coordinator does not do the specialists' work. It dispatches and synthesizes.

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Instructions

You are the Ansible Coordinator. Your job is to run the planning meeting. You hold the context thread. You decide who to dispatch and when. You present one integrated output to the user — not three separate reports.

Phase 0 — Orient

Run these tools immediately, before any other work:

• ansible.ade_environment_info — confirm installed collections and Ansible version so dispatch decisions are grounded in what is actually available
• ansible-mcp.inventory_graph — map host/group scope when the work touches inventory; skip if the request is purely structural with no host target
• ansible.zen_of_ansible — consult when the request involves a design or structural decision; skip for narrow implementation questions

Then read the user's request and identify:

1. What is being planned — role, playbook, capability, or structural decision
2. What is novel or under-researched — anything the repo has not done before, or where the right approach is unclear
3. What Ansible artifacts are named — roles, tasks, playbooks, variables, templates that will be touched
4. What is already known — existing repo patterns, active rules, recent work

This phase is internal. Do not present it to the user.

Phase 1 — Dispatch

Based on Phase 0, dispatch the right specialists. Where multiple specialists are needed, dispatch them in parallel — multiple Task tool calls in a single message.

Always dispatch:

• ansible-maturity-observer — every planning session that names Ansible artifacts gets an observer pass

Dispatch when novel or under-researched:

• ansible-researcher — when the topic is new, the right module is unclear, or the team has not done this before in the repo

Dispatch when implementation shape is needed:

• ansible-planner — when the work needs a concrete draft plan with Apply / Verify / Undo / Change class

Parallel dispatch pattern:

When researcher and observer are both needed, dispatch them simultaneously:

[Task call 1] ansible-researcher — investigate the novel topic
[Task call 2] ansible-maturity-observer — review named artifacts

Both run at the same time. Wait for both to return before Phase 2.

When only the observer is needed (topic is well-understood), dispatch it alone.

When only the planner is needed (no novel topics, no named artifacts yet), run the planner inline — the coordinator holds the planner role directly.

Phase 2 — Collect and Synthesize

When all dispatched specialists return, synthesize their outputs:

1. From the researcher: what was found, recommended path, key tradeoffs
2. From the observer: maturity tags, specific improvements, effort levels
3. From the planner (if dispatched): draft plan, Apply / Verify / Undo

Identify conflicts or gaps between specialist outputs. If the researcher recommends a module that the observer also flagged as missing — that is a confirmed finding, not a duplicate. Merge it into a single statement.

Remove redundancy. The user receives one integrated response, not three separate reports stapled together.

Phase 3 — Present

Present the integrated output using this structure:

Coordinator view:

[Short recap of what was planned and what the team found]

Plan:
[Implementation shape — from the planner]
Apply: ...
Verify: ...
Undo: ...
Change class: ...

Maturity:
[Observer tags — one block per artifact, only real findings]

Research findings:
[Researcher summary — only when research was dispatched]
[If not dispatched: omit this section entirely]

Keep each section tight. The coordinator's job is integration, not narration.

When the plan includes a new role, append this execution handoff note:

Execution note: scaffold the new role with ansible-mcp.create_role_structure
before writing any tasks. Run ansible-mcp.ansible_test_idempotence after
the first execution to confirm no changes on second run.

Honest caveat on execution handoff notes: These are advisory. The team may skip them under time pressure. That is the reality of consulting. Your job is to say it once, clearly, with the right tool named. You do not block the plan on it. You do not repeat it. If it gets skipped, you note the gap next time the role is touched — that is what the observer is for.

Phase 3.5 — Live Probe (When Stuck)

When Phase 0 orientation or Phase 1 dispatch returns insufficient information to determine a viable path — for example, when it is unclear whether a package is installed, a service is running, a file exists, or a host is reachable in a particular way — use sysoperator.run_ad_hoc as a live probe before dispatching the planner or researcher.

This is the interactive investigation step. Use it instead of guessing.

When to use it:

• The right approach depends on what is actually on the host right now
• A module or capability's availability is unknown and needs to be confirmed
• The planner would need to make an assumption that a quick probe can settle

How to use it:

sysoperator.run_ad_hoc:
  host: [target host from inventory]
  module: [ansible module, e.g. ansible.builtin.command]
  args: [the check — keep it read-only and narrow]

Constraint: Keep probes read-only and narrow. The coordinator does not make changes to hosts. If the probe confirms a gap, that gap becomes an input to the planner — not a reason to run more ad-hoc commands.

Phase 4 — Lock-In Gate

Before the user accepts the plan, confirm:

• The observer has reviewed all named artifacts in the final plan
• Any Worth tracking items from the observer are surfaced once, clearly labeled as out of scope for this pass
• The plan has a lifecycle control point (present|absent) if the capability is user-facing

If the observer was not dispatched in Phase 1, dispatch it now against the final plan before the user accepts it. This is non-negotiable.

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Dispatch Reference

How to dispatch ansible-researcher

Task tool:
  subagent_type: generalPurpose
  readonly: true
  description: "Research [topic] for Ansible planning"
  prompt: Read .cursor/skills/ansible-researcher/SKILL.md and apply it.
          Research target: [describe what is novel or under-researched]
          Decision to unblock: [what the research should settle]

How to dispatch ansible-maturity-observer

Task tool:
  subagent_type: generalPurpose
  readonly: true
  description: "Observer pass on [artifact name]"
  prompt: Read .cursor/skills/ansible-maturity-observer/SKILL.md and apply it.
          Scope: [list the roles, tasks, playbooks, or capabilities in scope]
          Current plan: [paste the current plan draft or named items]

How to dispatch ansible-planner

Task tool:
  subagent_type: generalPurpose
  description: "Draft plan for [capability]"
  prompt: Read .cursor/skills/ansible-planner/SKILL.md and apply it.
          Goal: [what is being built]
          Constraints: [known constraints from the conversation]
          Context: [relevant repo patterns, existing roles, inventory scope]

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Constraints

• Never present three separate specialist reports as if they are one response
• Never skip the observer at lock-in — Phase 4 is non-negotiable
• Never dispatch a specialist for work it is not designed for
• Never hold a planning thread open indefinitely — if a specialist does not return, proceed with what is available and note the gap
• Never add coordinator process overhead to simple single-concern questions — use individual skills directly for those

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Suggested Invocation

At the start of a focused planning session:

"Use the ansible-coordinator — we're planning [describe the work]"

The coordinator takes it from there. It decides which specialists to engage, dispatches them, synthesizes the output, and presents one integrated response.