# ERROR: with\_items is not a legal parameter at this level in an Ansible Playbook

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-with-items-is-not-a-legal-parameter-at-this-level-in-an-ansible-playbook/18075>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [April 24, 2015, 11:13am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-with-items-is-not-a-legal-parameter-at-this-level-in-an-ansible-playbook/18075 "2015-04-24T11:13:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Serega\_Sheypak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7bcc69/32.png) [@Serega\_Sheypak](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Serega_Sheypak)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 11:13am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-with-items-is-not-a-legal-parameter-at-this-level-in-an-ansible-playbook/18075/1 "2015-04-24T11:13:49Z")

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Hi, what do I do wrong?

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**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 1:53pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-with-items-is-not-a-legal-parameter-at-this-level-in-an-ansible-playbook/18075/2 "2015-04-24T13:53:04Z")

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with\_items is for tasks, not for plays, not sure what you are trying  
to do there with sudoUser.

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**Author:** ![Serega\_Sheypak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7bcc69/32.png) [@Serega\_Sheypak](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Serega_Sheypak)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 3:00pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-with-items-is-not-a-legal-parameter-at-this-level-in-an-ansible-playbook/18075/3 "2015-04-24T15:00:52Z")

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My fault!

This one works

- hosts: all  
user: “{{ sudoUser }}”  
sudo: True  
roles:
- common

I have different default passwordless sudo for AWS instance and Vagrant machine. So I want to pass it’s name from outside.

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**Author:** ![Serega\_Sheypak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7bcc69/32.png) [@Serega\_Sheypak](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Serega_Sheypak)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 3:01pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-with-items-is-not-a-legal-parameter-at-this-level-in-an-ansible-playbook/18075/4 "2015-04-24T15:01:14Z")

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Problem solved.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 3:06pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-with-items-is-not-a-legal-parameter-at-this-level-in-an-ansible-playbook/18075/5 "2015-04-24T15:06:46Z")

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you can set the group\_var ansible\_sudo\_user (ansbile\_become\_user  
starting at 1.9) and you won't have to manually add it every time.

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**Author:** ![Serega\_Sheypak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7bcc69/32.png) [@Serega\_Sheypak](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Serega_Sheypak)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 3:14pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-with-items-is-not-a-legal-parameter-at-this-level-in-an-ansible-playbook/18075/6 "2015-04-24T15:14:32Z")

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Aha, I already did it.  
with\_items was wrong way to pass it as variable  
user: “{{ sudoUser }}”  
is right way.