# rare ansible error: failed to combine variables, expected dicts but got a 'dict' and a 'list'

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/rare-ansible-error-failed-to-combine-variables-expected-dicts-but-got-a-dict-and-a-list/16734>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [November 10, 2014, 6:56pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/rare-ansible-error-failed-to-combine-variables-expected-dicts-but-got-a-dict-and-a-list/16734 "2014-11-10T18:56:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sam4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@sam4](https://forum.ansible.com/u/sam4)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 6:56pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/rare-ansible-error-failed-to-combine-variables-expected-dicts-but-got-a-dict-and-a-list/16734/1 "2014-11-10T18:56:05Z")

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Hi, I am receiving an error that isn’t shown anywhere in my search results:

“ERROR: failed to combine variables, expected dicts but got a ‘dict’ and a ‘list’”

Here’s the error in its entirety:  
[https://gist.github.com/uunsamp/3d484b1c4a70ca871e9d](https://gist.github.com/uunsamp/3d484b1c4a70ca871e9d)

Here’s all the related files:  
[https://gist.github.com/uunsamp/5371b811d7f2758d80ff](https://gist.github.com/uunsamp/5371b811d7f2758d80ff)

I’ve even tried configuring the hosts file to look like this:  
[https://gist.github.com/uunsamp/cbf35a92e2070c4a4924](https://gist.github.com/uunsamp/cbf35a92e2070c4a4924)

Any kind of help would be appreciated, I actually had vagrant and ansible working yesterday, but I deleted all of that work 😑

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**Author:** ![sam4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@sam4](https://forum.ansible.com/u/sam4)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 7:43pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/rare-ansible-error-failed-to-combine-variables-expected-dicts-but-got-a-dict-and-a-list/16734/2 "2014-11-10T19:43:51Z")

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I figured it out, I had vars/main.yml and tasks/main.yml for one of my roles mixed up! i.e. I put tasks in vars/main.yml and vars in tasks/main.yml