Chapter 1. Set up your development environment with the MCP server-enabled Ansible VS Code extension

Procedure

1. Open GitHub Copilot chat.

2. Enter a prompt in natural language asking the AI assistant what is installed in your environment. For example:

   1. Check my Ansible environment and tell me what’s installed.

   2. What collections are installed?

      The assistant then triggers the ade_environment_info tool.

3. Review the output, which typically includes:

   1. Workspace path and Python version
   2. Virtual environment status
   3. Ansible Automation Platform and ansible_lint versions
   4. A list of installed collections
   5. The installation status of Ansible development tools (ADT).

Procedure

1. Open GitHub Copilot chat.

2. Enter the prompt: Make sure I have ansible-dev-tools installed.

   The system then checks if Ansible development tools is installed. If so, the assistant will report that ansible-dev-tools is installed. If Ansible development tools is not installed, the AI assistant chooses a package manager (pip or pipx) and installs ADT automatically.

Procedure

1. Open GitHub Copilot chat.

2. In the chat window, enter a natural language prompt instructing the AI assistant to set up the configuration you want. For example:

   Set up a complete Ansible development environment with Python 3.11, and install the collections amazon.aws and ansible.posix.

   The assistant triggers the ade_setup_environment tool, and the system automatically performs the following configuration steps:

   • Create a virtual environment: The assistant creates a virtual environment (venv/) in your workspace.
   • Install core tools: The assistant installs ansible-core and ansible-lint in the new virtual environment.
   • Install collections: The assistant installs the requested collections (amazon.aws, ansible.posix) and their dependencies.
   • Check for conflicts: The assistant checks for conflicting packages and verifies ansible-lint status.

3. Review the output in the Copilot chat. When setup is complete, the assistant confirms that the environment is set up, and gives instructions on activating the environment. For example:

   1. To activate, run source <path>/venv/bin/activate
   2. To deactivate, run deactivate.