Playbooks can ship a human description Steward reads and shows when one is
selected. Convention: a `# description: <text>` magic comment (Ansible rejects
unknown play keys, so a comment is the portable place — works for third-party
playbooks too); falls back to the first play's name:. sources
.discover_playbook_description().
Surfaced at the top of the shared _playbook_vars.html partial, which loads on
playbook selection in the host run form, schedules form, and browse run form.
All four bundled playbooks (provision/install/update/docker_prune) now carry a
description line. Unit tests added.
Scribe #900.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
When you click Run, Steward now parses the playbook and renders a field
for each declared variable instead of a blank extra-vars textarea. The
form loads on demand via HTMX (/ansible/run-form/<source>/<playbook>).
- sources.discover_playbook_variables: parse vars: defaults + vars_prompt:
(vars_prompt wins on name collision; non-scalar vars skipped; role/include
vars not traversed). Flags secret-looking names + vars_prompt private.
- Run-time values flow through a JSON extra-vars file (-e @file), which is
space/quote-safe — fixes a latent shlex-split bug in the old -e key=value
textarea path. executor.build_extra_vars_file (pure) + start_run merge.
- Secret-flagged fields are masked AND routed through an unpersisted
secret_vars channel (runner.trigger_run → start_run), so passwords entered
at run time never land in the DB / run history.
- Defaults shown as placeholders (not prefilled): an untouched field falls
through to the inventory/play default instead of overriding it.
- routes: run_form HTMX endpoint; _parse_run_params now returns
(params, secret_vars, err) and reads var__/secret__ fields. Schedules drop
secret vars (can't prompt unattended).
- templates: ansible/_run_form.html fragment; browse.html rewired to HTMX,
static JS run-form removed. Advanced section keeps limit/tags/check + a
free-form extra-vars escape hatch.
- tests: test_playbook_variables.py (discovery + extra-vars file).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
bvandeusen