Ansible TUI – a zero-dependency terminal UI for running playbooks

Name: Ansible TUI – a zero-dependency terminal UI for running playbooks
Availability: InStock
Author: congzhangzh

by congzhangzh·Feb 26, 2026·3 points·3 comments

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Beats AWX/Semaphore with single-file TUI; no database or daemon needed.

Strengths

•Single ~650-line TSX file solves real friction (grepping YAML, copy-pasting hostnames)
•Live command builder with checkbox toggles gives immediate visual feedback before execution
•Runs as embedded Deno binary (~100MB) OR as one-liner URL—genuinely zero local dependencies option

Weaknesses

•100MB binary is bloated for a terminal UI; Deno one-liner requires Deno installed
•No persistent history, saved filters, or audit logging that enterprise Ansible users expect

Post Description

I got tired of grepping YAML files to remember tag names and copy-pasting hostnames into --limit every time I ran a playbook. AWX/Semaphore solve this but require a database and a daemon. So I built a single-file TUI instead.

Demo：https://raw.githubusercontent.com/congzhangzh/ansible-tui/re...

It parses your inventory.yml and playbook.yml, gives you a split-pane selector for hosts and tasks, builds the ansible-playbook command live as you toggle checkboxes, then runs it with streaming output — all inside the terminal.

The binary is ~100MB (Deno runtime embedded), but there's also a one-liner for Deno users that needs nothing local:

deno run --allow-read --allow-run --allow-write --allow-env \ https://raw.githubusercontent.com/congzhangzh/ansible-tui/main/app.tsx

Single file (~650 lines of TSX), MIT licensed.

https://github.com/congzhangzh/ansible-tui