ansible-proxy-chain/openspec/changes/archive/2026-04-22-inventory-template/design.md

Context

The inventory file contains environment-specific values (IPs, usernames). It should follow the same pattern as credentials — template in repo, instance gitignored.

Goals / Non-Goals

Goals:

• Ship hosts.yml.example as the tracked template
• Gitignore the actual hosts.yml

Non-Goals:

• Changing the inventory format or structure

Decisions

1. .example suffix convention

Use hosts.yml.example — consistent with common conventions. Users run cp inventory/hosts.yml.example inventory/hosts.yml and edit.

Risks / Trade-offs

• [Forgotten copy step] → New users may miss the copy. Mitigation: documented in README setup steps, Ansible will fail with a clear error if hosts.yml is missing.