Developing collections

.. _developing_collections:

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Developing collections

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Collections are a distribution format for Ansible content. You can package and distribute playbooks, roles, modules, and plugins using collections. A typical collection addresses a set of related use cases. For example, the cisco.ios collection automates management of Cisco IOS devices.

You can create a collection and publish it to Ansible Galaxy <https://galaxy.ansible.com>_ or to a private Automation Hub instance. You can publish certified collections to the Red Hat Automation Hub, part of the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.

Examine the :ref:developing_collections_path to understand how to go from creating a collection to having it included in the Ansible package distribution.

.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 2 :caption: Developing new collections

developing_collections_creating developing_collections_shared developing_collections_testing developing_collections_distributing developing_collections_documenting

.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 2 :caption: Working with existing collections

developing_collections_migrating developing_collections_contributing developing_collections_changelogs

.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 2 :caption: Collections references

developing_collections_structure collections_galaxy_meta

For instructions on developing modules, see :ref:developing_modules_general.

.. seealso::

:ref:collections Learn how to install and use collections in playbooks and roles :ref:contributing_maintained_collections Guidelines for contributing to selected collections :ref:Communication<communication> Got questions? Need help? Want to share your ideas? Visit the Ansible communication guide