HELP NEEDED: AnsibleCollectionFinder has not been installed in this process once again

[hinskii]

Regression in ansible-compat v25.8.0: an AnsibleCollectionFinder has not been installed in this process

Description

After upgrading ansible-lint to version 25.8.1, which uses ansible-compat v25.8.0, we are once again encountering the error described in ansible-lint issue #2945 when running ansible-lint in our CI pipeline:

an AnsibleCollectionFinder has not been installed in this process
Exit code: 1

This issue did not occur with ansible-compat v25.6.0 (and earlier in our setup). The problem reappeared immediately after the v25.8.0 release, suggesting a regression.

Environment

• ansible-lint version: 25.x (reproduced with version 25.8.1)
• ansible-core version: 2.19.0
• ruamel-yaml: 0.18.14
• Python: 3.13
• Executor: GitLab CI with Docker (python:3.13 image)

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install ansible-lint (which pulls in ansible-compat v25.8.0 by default)
2. Run ansible-lint on a playbook or role
3. Observe failure with AnsibleCollectionFinder has not been installed...

Expected Behavior

ansible-lint should execute normally without error.

Actual Behavior

ansible-lint exits with code 1 and prints the AnsibleCollectionFinder has not been installed in this process error.

Workaround

I found that pinning ansible-compat to version 25.6.0 during ansible-lint installation resolves the issue.

pip install "ansible-lint~=25.6.0" -c constraints.txt

(where constraints.txt contains ansible-compat==25.6.0)

Additional Info

This same error appeared in earlier releases and was previously resolved. using ansible-compoat v25.8.0 seems to have reintroduced it.

Thanks for looking into this!

[cidrblock]

sigh Sorry about this, a bug was trying to be fixed which delayed the AnsibleCollection initialization until it was need so it would properly reflect the full collection path.

let me try to recreate the issue.

[ifalatiksetlog]

same for us

[cidrblock]

trying to isolate this, I may need more environment specific information

Does anyone have the bandwidth to try this? It does not seem to cause the issue:

uv venv
uv pip install ansible-lint ansible-creator
uv pip freeze | grep ansible
source .venv/bin/activate
ansible-creator init playbook foo.bar
ansible-lint -v

(in a new directory :) )

should see

ansible-compat==25.8.0
ansible-core==2.19.0
ansible-creator==25.7.1
ansible-lint==25.8.1

[cidrblock]

here is a closer to real-world script, which identifies the project root:

uv venv
uv pip install ansible-lint ansible-creator
uv pip freeze | grep ansible
git init
source .venv/bin/activate
ansible-creator init collection foo.bar
echo ansible.scm >> requirements.txt
ansible-lint -v

still working to recreate

[cidrblock]

If someone could provide a repo in which the problem is happening it would be appreciated. I'm haivng a difficult time recreating the issue. Something simple full of ansible content (collection or playbooks)

@ifalatiksetlog @hinskii

[cidrblock]

I will be releasing a new version of ansible-compat that will allow it to work with ansible-lint < 25.8.1. The original issue being solved in lint 25.8.0 will still exist in lint 25.8.0, but pinned versions of line < 25.8.1 should work in the same manner they did with the next version of ansible-compat.

This does not resolve the reported issue with lint 25.8.1. a recreate would be very helpful.

Done:
https://pypi.org/project/ansible-compat/25.8.1/

[ifalatiksetlog]

Sorry, currently don't have the time to create a demo project, especially since our GitLab instance is not open to the public..