docs/docsite/rst/plugins/cliconf.rst
.. _cliconf_plugins:
.. contents:: :local: :depth: 2
Cliconf plugins are abstractions over the CLI interface to network devices. They provide a standard interface for Ansible to execute tasks on those network devices.
These plugins generally correspond one-to-one to network device platforms. Ansible loads the appropriate cliconf plugin automatically based on the ansible_network_os variable.
.. _enabling_cliconf:
You can extend Ansible to support other network devices by dropping a custom plugin into the cliconf_plugins directory.
.. _using_cliconf:
The cliconf plugin to use is determined automatically from the ansible_network_os variable. There should be no reason to override this functionality.
Most cliconf plugins can operate without configuration. A few have additional options that can be set to affect how tasks are translated into CLI commands.
Plugins are self-documenting. Each plugin should document its configuration options.
.. _cliconf_plugin_list:
These plugins have migrated to collections on Ansible Galaxy <https://galaxy.ansible.com>_. If you installed Ansible version 2.10 or later using pip, you have access to several cliconf plugins.
You can use ansible-doc -t cliconf -l to see the list of available plugins.
Use ansible-doc -t cliconf <plugin name> to see plugin-specific documentation and examples.
.. seealso::
:ref:Ansible for Network Automation<network_guide>
An overview of using Ansible to automate networking devices.
:ref:Communication<communication>
Got questions? Need help? Want to share your ideas? Visit the Ansible communication guide