# Vars Plugins

- Enabling vars plugins

- Using vars plugins

- Plugin Lists

Vars plugins inject additional variable data into Ansible runs that did not come from an inventory source, playbook, or command line. Playbook constructs like ‘host_vars’ and ‘group_vars’ work using vars plugins.

Vars plugins were partially implemented in Ansible 2.0 and rewritten to be fully implemented starting with Ansible 2.4.

The host_group_vars plugin shipped with Ansible enables reading variables from Assigning a variable to one machine: host variables and Assigning a variable to many machines: group variables.

## Enabling vars plugins

You can activate a custom vars plugin by either dropping it into a `vars_plugins` directory adjacent to your play, inside a role, or by putting it in one of the directory sources configured in ansible.cfg.

## Using vars plugins

Vars plugins are used automatically after they are enabled.

## Plugin Lists

You can use `ansible-doc -t vars -l` to see the list of available plugins. Use `ansible-doc -t vars <plugin name>` to see specific plugin-specific documentation and examples.

- host_group_vars – In charge of loading group_vars and host_vars

See also

Action Plugins

  Ansible Action plugins

Cache Plugins

  Ansible Cache plugins

Callback Plugins

  Ansible callback plugins

Connection Plugins

  Ansible connection plugins

Inventory Plugins

  Ansible inventory plugins

Shell Plugins

  Ansible Shell plugins

Strategy Plugins

  Ansible Strategy plugins

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