cli-constructor

An interactive terminal UI for building ansible-playbook commands. Discovers playbooks, extracts variables from roles, and lets you fill in values — then copies the ready-to-run command to your clipboard.

┌─ Playbooks [*] ─────┬─ Variables (12) | 3 roles ───────────────────────────┐
│ deploy-k3s           │    cluster_name              k3s-prod    Name of ... │
│ setup-monitoring     │  > admin_user                admin       Admin us... │
│ backup-etcd          │    node_count                3           Number o... │
│ rotate-certs         │    enable_traefik            true        Enable T... │
│                      │    registry_mirror           [complex]   Container.. │
│                      │    vault_password            [vault-encrypted]       │
│                      │    log_level                 info        Logging ... │
├──────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ansible-playbook playbooks/deploy-k3s.yml \                                │
│   -e cluster_name=k3s-prod \                                               │
│   -e admin_user=admin                              Copied to clipboard!    │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Features

• Playbook discovery -- automatically finds all .yml/.yaml files in your playbooks directory
• Variable extraction -- parses vars: from playbooks and defaults/main.yml from every referenced role (including include_role/import_role in tasks)
• Deduplication -- merges variables across roles with playbook-level vars taking priority
• Comment-aware -- pulls variable descriptions from YAML comments
• Smart types -- vault-encrypted values, maps, and lists are shown but marked non-editable; simple scalars and empty lists are editable
• Live command preview -- bottom pane updates in real time as you fill in values
• Clipboard copy -- one keypress to copy the command
• Vim navigation -- j/k, / search with n/N, page up/down
• Shell-safe output -- values are properly escaped for direct shell use

Requirements

• Go 1.21+
• A terminal that supports ANSI colors

Installation

go install github.com/ay-b/cli-constructor@latest

Or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/ay-b/cli-constructor.git
cd cli-constructor
go build -o cli-constructor .

Usage

Run from a directory that contains playbooks/ and roles/ subdirectories (standard Ansible layout):

your-project/
├── playbooks/
│   ├── deploy-k3s.yml
│   ├── setup-monitoring.yml
│   └── backup-etcd.yml
└── roles/
    ├── k3s_server/
    │   └── defaults/
    │       └── main.yml
    ├── monitoring/
    │   └── defaults/
    │       └── main.yml
    └── etcd/
        └── defaults/
            └── main.yml

# Default: looks for ./playbooks/ and ./roles/
cli-constructor

# Custom paths
cli-constructor -d /path/to/playbooks -r /path/to/roles

# Long-form flags
cli-constructor --playbooks-dir ../ansible/playbooks --roles-dir ../ansible/roles

Keybindings

Global

Key	Action
Tab	Cycle panes (playbooks -> variables -> command)
Ctrl+C	Quit
q	Quit
?	Show help overlay

Playbooks pane

Key	Action
j / Down	Next playbook
k / Up	Previous playbook
PgDn / PgUp	Page down / up
Enter	Focus variables pane
/	Search playbooks
n / N	Next / previous search match

Variables pane

Key	Action
j / Down	Next variable
k / Up	Previous variable
PgDn / PgUp	Page down / up
Enter	Edit selected variable
d	Reset variable to default
/	Search variables (name, description, default)
n / N	Next / previous search match

Edit overlay

Key	Action
Enter	Confirm value
Escape	Cancel

Command pane

Key	Action
Enter / c / C	Copy command to clipboard

How it works

1. Discovery -- scans the playbooks directory for .yml/.yaml files
2. Parsing -- for each playbook, extracts roles from roles:, include_role, and import_role directives, plus playbook-level vars:
3. Role inspection -- reads defaults/main.yml from each role to collect variables with their defaults and descriptions
4. Deduplication -- merges all variables, with playbook-level definitions taking precedence over role defaults
5. Interactive editing -- presents everything in a three-pane TUI where you select a playbook, fill in variable values, and see the resulting command update live
6. Output -- generates a properly escaped ansible-playbook command with -e key=value flags for every variable you've set

Variable display

Color	Meaning
White	Variable name (default value not overridden)
Yellow	Variable name with a user-set value
Green	User-entered value
Gray	Default values, descriptions, complex/vault variables

Complex types (maps, non-empty lists, vault-encrypted values) are displayed for reference but cannot be edited in the TUI.

License

MIT