# How do I detect whether my Python code is ran by Ansible as it's module, or is run directly by Python interpreter?

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-do-i-detect-whether-my-python-code-is-ran-by-ansible-as-its-module-or-is-run-directly-by-python-interpreter/44700>\
**Category:** Get Help\
**Tags:** dev, module\
**Created:** [October 17, 2025, 5:26am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-do-i-detect-whether-my-python-code-is-ran-by-ansible-as-its-module-or-is-run-directly-by-python-interpreter/44700 "2025-10-17T05:26:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Fred\_Wood](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/fred_wood/32/9659_2.png) [@Fred\_Wood](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Fred_Wood)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 5:26am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-do-i-detect-whether-my-python-code-is-ran-by-ansible-as-its-module-or-is-run-directly-by-python-interpreter/44700/1 "2025-10-17T05:26:45Z")

</div>

Tell me please in what way I can know inside Python3 code whether the code is running as an Ansible module as part of a playbook, for example, or whether the code was launched somehow else (by a script without TTY, or at CLI)?

I want to keep my small script as a single file, but make it usable both as a CLI utility and as an Ansible module for Ansible tasks. Yes, I can slice logic into a Python module with the logic, import the logic as a module in the CLI utility file, and separately I can import it in another file with the Ansible module.

But is there a good, reliable criterion to detect whether the parent is Ansible or not?

Thank you!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![StefanSchnell](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/stefanschnell/32/9353_2.png) [@StefanSchnell](https://forum.ansible.com/u/StefanSchnell)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 5:48am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-do-i-detect-whether-my-python-code-is-ran-by-ansible-as-its-module-or-is-run-directly-by-python-interpreter/44700/2 "2025-10-17T05:48:45Z")

</div>

Hello Fred [@Fred_Wood],  
this is an interesting question.

I use the following function to detect whether the execution environment is Ansible:

```auto
def isAnsibleAutomation():
    """ Checks if script runs in Ansible environment
    """
    ansibleAutomationFlag: bool = False
    fileName: str = sys.argv[0]
    if "/tmp/ansible" in fileName and "payload.zip/ansible/modules" in fileName:
        ansibleAutomationFlag = True
    return ansibleAutomationFlag

```

I can’t say exactly how valid this approach is, but it has met my requirements so far.

Best regards  
Stefan

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bcoca](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/bcoca/32/9269_2.png) [@bcoca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/bcoca)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 12:38pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-do-i-detect-whether-my-python-code-is-ran-by-ansible-as-its-module-or-is-run-directly-by-python-interpreter/44700/3 "2025-10-17T12:38:05Z")

</div>

I would not count on `/tmp/ansible` as that is subject to change, while looking for ‘/ansible/’ will probably not, it won’t be true when using `pipelining`. The same with the zip detection, which is also limited to modules using the `AnsibleModule` base class.

One thing that should work no matter what type of module or how execution is configured is looking for internal fields like `_ansible_module_name` in the arguments file, if using `AnsibleModule` to autoload parameters, you can check if it is `None`, which is the default and would indicate ansible did not run it.