Ansible skipped_reason Deprecated

Introduction

Starting with ansible-core 2.20 (Ansible 14), the skipped_reason result key is deprecated in favor of skip_reason. If you see the warning The 'skipped_reason' value is deprecated, your callback plugins or custom code needs updating before this becomes an error in a future release.

The Warning

[DEPRECATION WARNING]: The 'skipped_reason' value is deprecated, 
use 'skip_reason' instead. This feature will be removed in a future release.

This appears when:

A callback plugin accesses result._result['skipped_reason']
Custom action plugins set skipped_reason in results
Third-party collections use the old key name

The Fix

Callback Plugins

# ❌ Old (deprecated)
class CallbackModule(CallbackBase):
    def v2_runner_on_skipped(self, result):
        reason = result._result.get('skipped_reason', '')
        self._display.display(f"SKIPPED: {reason}")

# ✅ New (correct)
class CallbackModule(CallbackBase):
    def v2_runner_on_skipped(self, result):
        reason = result._result.get('skip_reason', '')
        self._display.display(f"SKIPPED: {reason}")

Backward-Compatible Fix

# ✅ Works with both old and new Ansible versions
class CallbackModule(CallbackBase):
    def v2_runner_on_skipped(self, result):
        reason = result._result.get('skip_reason',
                 result._result.get('skipped_reason', ''))
        self._display.display(f"SKIPPED: {reason}")

Action Plugins

# ❌ Old
return dict(
    skipped=True,
    skipped_reason="Host not in target group"
)

# ✅ New
return dict(
    skipped=True,
    skip_reason="Host not in target group"
)

Playbook Impact

Standard playbooks using when conditions are not affected — this is an internal API change for plugin developers. However, if you register results and check skipped_reason:

# ❌ May break in future
- name: Run conditional task
  ansible.builtin.command: echo hello
  when: inventory_hostname in group_names
  register: result

- name: Show skip reason (old way)
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: "{{ result.skipped_reason | default('') }}"
  when: result.skipped | default(false)

# ✅ Future-proof
- name: Show skip reason (new way)
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: "{{ result.skip_reason | default(result.skipped_reason | default('')) }}"
  when: result.skipped | default(false)

Check Your Code

# Find uses of skipped_reason in your project
grep -r "skipped_reason" roles/ plugins/ callback_plugins/ 2>/dev/null

# Find in installed collections
grep -r "skipped_reason" ~/.ansible/collections/ 2>/dev/null

# Find in custom callback plugins
grep -r "skipped_reason" /usr/share/ansible/plugins/callback/ 2>/dev/null

Common Affected Components

Component	Action
Custom callback plugins	Replace `skipped_reason` → `skip_reason`
Custom action plugins	Update return dict key
Third-party collections	Update collection or wait for fix
Playbooks using `register`	Add fallback: `skip_reason \| default(skipped_reason)`
ansible.cfg callback settings	No change needed

Timeline

Version	Behavior
ansible-core ≤2.19	`skipped_reason` works, no warning
ansible-core 2.20 (Ansible 14 RC)	Warning displayed
ansible-core 2.21+ (future)	`skipped_reason` removed — error

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
Warning appears but no custom plugins	A collection's callback plugin uses it — update the collection
Warning in CI/CD output	Add `grep -v "DEPRECATION WARNING"` or fix the source
Can't find the source	Run with `-vvv` to see which plugin triggers it
Need to support both old and new	Use fallback pattern: `get('skip_reason', get('skipped_reason'))`

Best Practices

Fix now, not later — deprecations become errors in the next major
Use the fallback pattern for backward compatibility
Update collections — ansible-galaxy collection install --upgrade
Test with Ansible 14 RC — pip install ansible==14.0.0rc1
Search your codebase — grep -r skipped_reason catches everything

Conclusion

Replace skipped_reason with skip_reason in all callback plugins, action plugins, and playbook result checks. Use the fallback pattern (skip_reason | default(skipped_reason)) if you need to support multiple Ansible versions. Fix it now — this becomes a hard error in a future ansible-core release.