[opensourcedex]

ara is a free, open source business intelligence & reporting project written in Python and released under GPL-3.0. It has 2,020 GitHub stars, 180 forks and 133 open issues, and was last pushed 2 months ago. On this registry it ranks #20 of 34 tracked projects in Business Intelligence & Reporting, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available.

What is ara?

What it is

ARA Records Ansible is a Python project that records Ansible runs and presents results for reporting and troubleshooting. It is a recursive acronym focused on simplicity, and it lives in the Ansible ecosystem while using Django, Django REST Framework, a web interface, and an API.

The concrete problem it solves is understanding what ansible and ansible-playbook commands did when they run in many places. It records those commands from terminals, scripts, CI/CD platforms, and automation tools, then makes results available through a CLI, a REST API, and a self-hosted web reporting interface.

Key capabilities

  • ARA records ansible and ansible-playbook commands through a standard Ansible callback plugin that gathers data as Ansible runs.
  • It stores results in SQLite, MySQL, or PostgreSQL databases, with SQLite used by default when no persistent server is required.
  • It sends data to a Django REST API server so results from different tools, jobs, or servers can be aggregated.
  • It provides a CLI for inspecting recorded playbooks and hosts, such as ara playbook list and ara host list.
  • It provides a self-hosted web reporting interface that can run locally with ara-manage runserver.
  • It supports recording from Ansible tools, CI/CD platforms, and git forges, including AWX, Molecule, Semaphore, Jenkins, and GitHub.
  • The API server can be deployed with the ara_api role or with container images on DockerHub and quay.io.

Who uses it and how

  • Operators run Ansible from laptops, servers, virtual machines, containers, or execution environments and use ARA to retain playbook records.
  • CI/CD users integrate ARA with Jenkins, Rundeck, or Zuul so automated runs are reported centrally rather than only in job output.
  • Git forge users can record Ansible activity from GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, or Forgejo and review results through the interface or API.
  • Teams using AWX, Automation Controller, Molecule, or Semaphore can point those tools at ARA to collect records from different execution paths.
  • Self-hosters who need a shared view can run the API server and configure the callback plugin to send data to it.

Getting started

For local use, the README shows python3 -m pip install --user ansible "ara[server]", configuring ANSIBLE_CALLBACK_PLUGINS, running a playbook, and using ara-manage runserver. For server deployments, it shows the ara_api role and container images docker.io/recordsansible/ara-api:latest and quay.io/recordsansible/ara-api:latest.

When to use it — and when not to

ARA is appropriate when a team needs a self-hosted, local-first reporting layer for Ansible runs across many tools, servers, or pipelines. A self-hoster must operate the API server, maintain a SQLite, MySQL, or PostgreSQL database, configure authentication for production use, and tune recording volume for performance. It is less suitable when a hosted product with no self-managed database or server is required.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

ARA Records Ansible

ARA Records Ansible and makes it easier to understand and troubleshoot.

logo

It is another recursive acronym with a focus on simplicity.

About ara

ara provides Ansible reporting by recording ansible and ansible-playbook commands regardless of how and where they run:

  • from most Linux distributions and even on Mac OS (as long as python >= 3.10 is available)
  • from tools that run Ansible like ansible-(pull|test|runner|navigator), AWX & Automation Controller (Tower), Molecule and Semaphore
  • from a terminal, a script or by hand
  • from a laptop, desktop, server, virtual machine, container or execution environment
  • from CI/CD platforms such as Jenkins, Rundeck and Zuul
  • from git forges like GitHub, GitLab, Gitea & Forgejo

The recorded results are available via an included CLI, a REST API as well as a self-hosted, local-first web reporting interface.

A recorded demo of the web interface is included in the documentation.

How it works

ARA Records Ansible results to SQLite, MySQL and PostgreSQL databases with a standard callback plugin.

This plugin gathers data as Ansible runs and sends it to a Django REST API server:

recording-workflow

Requirements

  • Any recent Linux distribution or Mac OS with python >=3.10 available
  • The ara package (containing the Ansible plugins) must be installed for the same python interpreter as Ansible itself

Getting started

For production use, consider learning about best practices, enabling authentication and ignoring what doesn't need to be recorded.

Recording playbooks without an API server

ara records to a local sqlite database by default and does not require a persistent server:

# Install ansible (or ansible-core) with ara (including API server dependencies)
python3 -m pip install --user ansible "ara[server]"

# Configure Ansible to enable ara
export ANSIBLE_CALLBACK_PLUGINS="$(python3 -m ara.setup.callback_plugins)"

# Run an Ansible playbook as usual
ansible-playbook playbook.yml

# Check out the CLI
ara playbook list
ara host list

# or the UI at http://127.0.0.1:8000
ara-manage runserver

getting-started

Recording playbooks with an API server

The server includes a REST API as well a web reporting interface.

Consider running one to aggregate playbook runs from different tools, jobs or servers into a single dashboard that can be shared with friends.

Get started with the ara_api role or with the container images published by the project on DockerHub and quay.io:

# Create a directory for a volume to store settings and a sqlite database
mkdir -p ~/.ara/server

# Start an API server with docker from the image on DockerHub:
docker run --name ara-api --detach --tty \
  --volume ~/.ara/server:/opt/ara -p 8000:8000 \
  docker.io/recordsansible/ara-api:latest

# or with podman from the image on quay.io:
podman run --name ara-api --detach --tty \
  --volume ~/.ara/server:/opt/ara -p 8000:8000 \
  quay.io/recordsansible/ara-api:latest

Once the server is running, ara must be installed and configured to send data to it:

# Install ansible (or ansible-core) with ara (excluding API server dependencies)
python3 -m pip install --user ansible ara

# Configure Ansible to enable ara
export ANSIBLE_CALLBACK_PLUGINS="$(python3 -m ara.setup.callback_plugins)"

# Set up the ara callback to know where the API server is located
export ARA_API_CLIENT="http"
export ARA_API_SERVER="http://127.0.0.1:8000"

# Run an Ansible playbook as usual
ansible-playbook playbook.yml

# Check out the CLI
ara playbook list
ara host list

# Or browse http://127.0.0.1:8000 (running from the container)

Live demo

A live demo is deployed with the ara Ansible collection from Ansible Galaxy.

It is available at https://demo.recordsansible.org.

Documentation and changelog

Documentation for installing, configuring, running and using ara is available on ara.readthedocs.io.

Common issues may be resolved by reading the troubleshooting guide.

Changelog and release notes are available within the repository's git tags as well as the documentation.

Community and getting help

Contributing

Contributions to the project are welcome and appreciated !

Get started with the contributor's documentation.

ara is a non-commercial project but it still incurs expenses like hosting, development, maintenance, testing & CI. If ara has been helpful or useful to you, consider ordering stickers or leaving a tip: https://ko-fi.com/rfc2549

Authors

Code contributions to the project can be viewed from the git log or on Codeberg.

The ara parrot logo was designed and contributed by Jason E. Rist.

Copyright

Copyright (c) 2026 The ARA Records Ansible authors

ARA Records Ansible is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

ARA Records Ansible is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with ARA Records Ansible.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

Frequently asked questions

Is ara free to use?

ara is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does ara do?

ARA Records Ansible and makes it easier to understand and troubleshoot.

What is ara written in?

ara is primarily written in Python. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/ansible-community/ara, and it has 2,020 GitHub stars.