# Locally test a plugin during development?

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/locally-test-a-plugin-during-development/45824>\
**Category:** Get Help\
**Tags:** ansible-test\
**Created:** [May 20, 2026, 8:19pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/locally-test-a-plugin-during-development/45824 "2026-05-20T20:19:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mirabilos](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/mirabilos/32/9721_2.png) [@mirabilos](https://forum.ansible.com/u/mirabilos)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2026, 8:19pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/locally-test-a-plugin-during-development/45824/1 "2026-05-20T20:19:44Z")

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I’m writing a few plugins for a customer, for now on the customer’s system (we may contribute them later).

I’ve created a rough skeleton of the first plugin, with DOCUMENTATION, EXAMPLES, RETURN and (it’s a test plugin) a TestModule class and a function (that only returns False statically, for now). Now I want to be able to test that locally.

AIUI, `ansible-test sanity` should run the tests from the EXAMPLES section, is this correct?

However, I cannot get it to work locally. I’m in the directory `…/ansible_collections/local/custname/` and try:

```plaintext
$ ansible-test sanity --local --python-interpreter /usr/bin/python3 plugins/test/ip_compare.py
Running sanity test "action-plugin-docs"
Running sanity test "ansible-doc"
Installing requirements for Python 3.13 [venv]
Downloading pip 24.2 bootstrap script: https://ci-files.testing.ansible.com/ansible-test/get-pip-24.2.py
Download failed: <urlopen error [Errno 101] Network is unreachable>
 
The bootstrap script can be manually downloaded and saved to: …/.ansible/test/cache/get_pip_24_2.py
 
If you're behind a proxy, consider commenting on the following GitHub issue:
 
https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/77304
FATAL: Python 3.13 at "…/.ansible/test/venv/sanity.ansible-doc/3.13/faf00c3c/bin/python" does not have pip available.

```

I thought the `--local` option should make it so it does NOT use a venv, but here it tries to do that.

The system is indeed disconnected from the larger internet, but I can install additional Debian packages if needed. My local collection does not have any special requirements set.

There is no manpage for `ansible-test`, and the `--help` output is terse and only useful for those who already know what they’re doing.

## tl;dr

So, the questions are:

- does this indeed run the tests from EXAMPLES (and, if not, what does?)
- how can I get that to run truly locally (as nōn-root (will suffice for these tests), using system Python3, etc.)?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mirabilos](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/mirabilos/32/9721_2.png) [@mirabilos](https://forum.ansible.com/u/mirabilos)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2026, 8:49pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/locally-test-a-plugin-during-development/45824/2 "2026-05-20T20:49:02Z")

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By duplicating the EXAMPLES in `tests/integration/targets/ip_compare/tasks/main.yml` I made this work (with `ansible-test integration ip_compare`), but is that really the intended way?

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**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 21, 2026, 4:48am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/locally-test-a-plugin-during-development/45824/3 "2026-05-21T04:48:28Z")

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> [@mirabilos](#):
>
> AIUI, `ansible-test sanity` should run the tests from the EXAMPLES section, is this correct?

No. `sanity` does not run any tests, it runs sanity checks. (Also no other `ansible-test` sub command runs anything from `EXAMPLES`. No other testing tool does either, to my knowlege.)

> [@mirabilos](#):
>
> how can I get that to run truly locally (as nōn-root (will suffice for these tests), using system Python3, etc.)?

That only works (or worked?) with `--docker`, to my knowledge. For that you need to have the required container images available though.

> [@mirabilos](#):
>
> By duplicating the EXAMPLES in `tests/integration/targets/ip_compare/tasks/main.yml` I made this work (with `ansible-test integration ip_compare`), but is that really the intended way?

Yes. `EXAMPLES` are not tests, and in 99.99% of all modules cannot be used as tests.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mirabilos](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/mirabilos/32/9721_2.png) [@mirabilos](https://forum.ansible.com/u/mirabilos)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 9:59pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/locally-test-a-plugin-during-development/45824/4 "2026-05-22T21:59:55Z")

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Ah, okay. I apparently happened to pick up the one or two as “template” where the EXAMPLES used `assert` as if they were testcases.

I’ll work with the split tests, thanks.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/1X/1882d9a01da5d8996a862359b0913cc568a39b84.svg) [@system](https://forum.ansible.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2026, 10:00pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/locally-test-a-plugin-during-development/45824/5 "2026-06-21T22:00:24Z")

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