# Clarifying the Role of ansible-test in Collection Testing **URL:** \ **Category:** Collection Development\ **Tags:** community-roadmap-26, ansible-test, collection-test-strat\ **Created:** [May 1, 2026, 11:09am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/clarifying-the-role-of-ansible-test-in-collection-testing/45763 "2026-05-01T11:09:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dbrennand](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/dbrennand/32/7830_2.png) [@dbrennand](https://forum.ansible.com/u/dbrennand)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2026, 11:09am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/clarifying-the-role-of-ansible-test-in-collection-testing/45763/1 "2026-05-01T11:09:49Z")
Hey Ansible Community šŸ‘‹ As @oranod shared in his [Ansible community roadmap 2026 - Project Discussions](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-community-roadmap-2026/45522) post, one area that is of particular focus for the Community & Partner Engineering team is [Developing a unified strategy for collection testing](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-community-roadmap-2026/45522#p-138470-developing-a-unified-strategy-for-collection-testing-16). As part of this initiative, we have identified that the first item to discuss is `ansible-test`. It has been mentioned a few times by the Ansible Core team here on the Forum [1] [2] that there are no plans for new testing functionality for collections in `ansible-test` or to extend `ansible-test` to be more flexible for collection testing. Furthermore, as Sivel mentioned in his post, `ansible-test` was never actually designed for collection testing: > "The original reason that ansible-test became the standard for testing collections was largely because nothing else existed, so collections inherited the same rules as ansible-core.ā€ Right now the Ansible documentation contradicts this messaging, so our first item is to update the documentation to explicitly state that `ansible-test` is not a tool for collection testing. **We want to stress that the purpose of this is not to say collection maintainers should stop using `ansible-test` for testing collections at this time** , we are updating the documentation to clarify the purpose of `ansible-test`. In the next two weeks we will be sharing another update to kick off the unified strategy for collection testing, outlining some goals of the initiative and providing an overview of the current collection testing landscape so weā€™re all on the same page and in a good place to begin further discussions on this area. Please keep an eye out for this upcoming post and the #collection-test-strat tag. [1]: [ERROR: invalid-extension: Official Ansible modules must have - #4 by sivel - Project Discussions](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-invalid-extension-official-ansible-modules-must-have/5719/4) [2]: [CfgMgmtCamp 2026 discussion (7/12): Collection testing is still a mess - #3 by sivel](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cfgmgmtcamp-2026-discussion-7-12-collection-testing-is-still-a-mess/45294/3) ---
**Author:** ![felixfontein](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/felixfontein/32/7530_2.png) [@felixfontein](https://forum.ansible.com/u/felixfontein)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2026, 11:28am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/clarifying-the-role-of-ansible-test-in-collection-testing/45763/2 "2026-05-01T11:28:54Z")
> [@dbrennand](#): > > Right now the Ansible documentation contradicts this messaging, so our first item is to update the documentation to explicitly state that `ansible-test` is not a tool for collection testing. **We want to stress that the purpose of this is not to say collection maintainers should stop using `ansible-test` for testing collections at this time** , we are updating the documentation to clarify the purpose of `ansible-test`. Maybe we first should have alternatives before deprecating? Right now, ansible-test is stlil **the** collection testing tool. Anyone else feels reminded of [Goomics 50](https://goomics.net/50) ? ---
**Author:** ![dbrennand](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/dbrennand/32/7830_2.png) [@dbrennand](https://forum.ansible.com/u/dbrennand)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2026, 11:56am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/clarifying-the-role-of-ansible-test-in-collection-testing/45763/3 "2026-05-01T11:56:29Z")
> [@felixfontein](#): > > Maybe we first should have alternatives before depracting? Right now, ansible-test is stlil **the** collection testing tool. Hey @felixfontein šŸ‘‹ - Yes, right now `ansible-test` is **the** collection testing tool. Nothing is being deprecated at this time. > [@dbrennand](#): > > In the next two weeks we will be sharing another update to kick off the unified strategy for collection testing, outlining some goals of the initiative and providing an overview of the current collection testing landscape so weā€™re all on the same page and in a good place to begin further discussions on this area. I know things seem right now a bit vague šŸ˜”. When this post I mentioned above comes about the unified strategy for collection testing initiative, I hope things will become clearer and we all can discuss what comes next. ---
**Author:** ![flowerysong](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/flowerysong/32/2305_2.png) [@flowerysong](https://forum.ansible.com/u/flowerysong)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2026, 6:11pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/clarifying-the-role-of-ansible-test-in-collection-testing/45763/4 "2026-05-03T18:11:35Z")
> [@dbrennand](#): > > Hey @felixfontein šŸ‘‹ - Yes, right now `ansible-test` is **the** collection testing tool. Nothing is being deprecated at this time. This is contradicted by your first post. > [@dbrennand](#): > > our first item is to update the documentation to explicitly state that `ansible-test` is not a tool for collection testing Saying that a tool is not for a purpose it was previously used for is deprecation (there are other thingsā€”like warning messagesā€”that are also deprecation, but that doesnā€™t make this not deprecation.) This feels very strange as a first step. ---
**Author:** ![sivel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/sivel/32/1198_2.png) [@sivel](https://forum.ansible.com/u/sivel)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 3:05pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/clarifying-the-role-of-ansible-test-in-collection-testing/45763/5 "2026-05-04T15:05:48Z")
> [@dbrennand](#): > > Furthermore, as Sivel mentioned in his post, `ansible-test` was never actually designed for collection testing: Whether it was intended or not is somewhat moot. The reality is that it was modified to meet the needs for the 2.10 release, and has been the defacto standard. So it _is_ a tool for collection testing. Itā€™s just not being extended further for this need. What it delivers is still useful, and largely mandated or required for collections. ---
**Author:** ![jborean](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/jborean/32/1525_2.png) [@jborean](https://forum.ansible.com/u/jborean)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 6:24pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/clarifying-the-role-of-ansible-test-in-collection-testing/45763/6 "2026-05-04T18:24:58Z")
From a testing perspective `ansible-test` is critical for the Windows collections as it allows access to the `core-ci` API to spin up short lived AWS/Azure instances. Iā€™m not sure if this could ever be replaced without the core-ci infrastructure being made a public API and I donā€™t think that would ever happen. From a sanity perspective then yea we could easily replace a lot of the functionality outside of Ansible if that is truly desired. ---
**Author:** ![dbrennand](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/dbrennand/32/7830_2.png) [@dbrennand](https://forum.ansible.com/u/dbrennand)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2026, 10:38am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/clarifying-the-role-of-ansible-test-in-collection-testing/45763/7 "2026-05-08T10:38:36Z")
Thank you for all the responses on this so far. The PR for updating the collection developer guide with a small note is here: [Add note on Collection Testing with ansible-test by dbrennand Ā· Pull Request #3654 Ā· ansible/ansible-documentation Ā· GitHub](https://github.com/ansible/ansible-documentation/pull/3654)