Ansible 14

Apply these standalone rules to Ansible community package 14 and its release baseline, ansible-core 2.21. Cover controller execution, inventories, playbooks, modules, plugins, Vault, collections, and managed hosts; review each additional collection's own requirements and security controls.

Version scope and security fixes

• Record the resolved core and collection versions with ansible --version and ansible-galaxy collection list; ansible==14.3.1 permits ansible-core~=2.21.3 and does not pin an exact core patch. Lock the reviewed environment and container image digest.
• Use controller Python 3.12–3.14 and managed-node Python 3.9–3.14 within core 2.21's compatibility matrix; select a Python version still receiving security fixes and honor narrower collection requirements.
• Use supported Windows releases and the documented Windows PowerShell 5.1 or PowerShell 7.6 LTS target support; verify the chosen collection and connection plugin support that interpreter rather than assuming every PowerShell version works.
• Keep the controller on the newest ansible-core patch of a maintained minor and the newest release of the current community package major, because the community package maintains one major at a time while ansible-core keeps shipping security fixes for its three newest minors. Install them from a lock file that Dependabot or Renovate keeps current, or from an execution-environment image referenced by digest, and take any exact package or collection version from PyPI or Galaxy rather than memory, leaving a placeholder that fails the build when you can't