# Custom Execution Environment not rendering Jinja2 templates before ios\_config

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/custom-execution-environment-not-rendering-jinja2-templates-before-ios-config/45013>\
**Category:** Get Help\
**Tags:** cisco, awx, ee\
**Created:** [December 19, 2025, 4:47pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/custom-execution-environment-not-rendering-jinja2-templates-before-ios-config/45013 "2025-12-19T16:47:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sean\_White](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/sean_white/32/9193_2.png) [@Sean\_White](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Sean_White)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 4:47pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/custom-execution-environment-not-rendering-jinja2-templates-before-ios-config/45013/1 "2025-12-19T16:47:14Z")

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Hi all,

I’ve built a custom Execution Environment (EE) to handle creating network devices in Cisco ISE. That part works fine. However, when I run this EE with another playbook that previously worked under the stock AWX EE (24.6.1), the play fails.

Here’s the difference I’m seeing:

- With the stock AWX EE, my playbook uses `host_vars` and a `.j2` template. The template is rendered first, and the resulting commands are passed correctly to `cisco.ios.ios_config`.
- With my custom EE, the `.j2` file is not rendered. Instead, the raw Jinja syntax (`{% my_stuff_here %}`) is sent directly to the device as a CLI command.

My question: Is there a way to configure my custom EE so that Jinja templates are rendered before being passed to `ios_config`? For example, is there something I should add to the EE’s `ansible.cfg` or image build to ensure template rendering happens the same way it does in the stock AWX EE?

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

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**Author:** ![Sean\_White](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/sean_white/32/9193_2.png) [@Sean\_White](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Sean_White)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 7:57pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/custom-execution-environment-not-rendering-jinja2-templates-before-ios-config/45013/2 "2025-12-19T19:57:13Z")

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So, Although I did a few different things here the one that got me over the hump was adding Jinja2 to my dependencies/requirements.txt and jinja2\_extensions = jinja2.ext.do,jinja2.ext.loopcontrols,jinja2.ext.i18n,jinja2.ext.with\_ in my files/ansible.cfg. This finally rendered my .j2 files first and would send the correct command to the Cisco CLI

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**Author:** ![Leo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/leo/32/23_2.png) [@Leo](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Leo)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 10:40pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/custom-execution-environment-not-rendering-jinja2-templates-before-ios-config/45013/3 "2025-12-19T22:40:20Z")

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Hi @Sean_White, thanks for sharing the solution here.

This actually touches on an issue we were discussing recently with the network team,. I will have to check it out myself soon, probably after the holiday break 😉

FYI: I just moved the thread to the #Get Help category.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sean\_White](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/sean_white/32/9193_2.png) [@Sean\_White](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Sean_White)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 11:24pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/custom-execution-environment-not-rendering-jinja2-templates-before-ios-config/45013/4 "2025-12-19T23:24:39Z")

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Let me know if it works for you!