# Newbie Question - Ansible Engine required

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/newbie-question-ansible-engine-required/35578>\
**Category:** Ansible Developer\
**Created:** [August 3, 2021, 5:15pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/newbie-question-ansible-engine-required/35578 "2021-08-03T17:15:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dimndskier](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/dimndskier/32/773_2.png) [@dimndskier](https://forum.ansible.com/u/dimndskier)\
**Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 5:15pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/newbie-question-ansible-engine-required/35578/1 "2021-08-03T17:15:25Z")

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I have not yet written any ansible plays, playbooks - code in general.

If I write some ansible code, do I necessarily require an Ansible Engine, or Ansible Tower, or can I simply copy the playbooks (those are the files full of code right) and then execute them with:

ansible-playbook myplaybook.yml

with the understanding that a host specified within the file “myplaybook.yml” is identified within the /etc/ansible/hosts file? Correct?

So, I would want to use–  
hosts: localhost within the file myplaybook.yml  
and ensure localhost was identified in /etc/ansbile/hosts on any machine that I needed to run the plays/modules on?

Thank you,