Ansible Academy · Lesson

The always & never Special Tags

Force or block tasks regardless.

Two Reserved Tags

Ansible reserves two special tag names with built-in behavior: always and never. They are not filters but rules. 🔒

A task tagged always runs in every play, no matter which --tags you pass. It is perfect for must-do setup.

- name: Gather setup
  ansible.builtin.setup:
  tags:
    - always