ansible/ansible · error · AnsibleError

Collection requirement at '{path!s}' has both a {manifest_js

Error message

Collection requirement at '{path!s}' has both a {manifest_json!s} file and a {galaxy_yml!s}.
The requirement must either be an installed collection directory or a source collection directory, not both.

What it means

Raised in Requirement.from_requirement_dict (lib/ansible/galaxy/dependency_resolution/dataclasses.py) when a directory requirement contains BOTH MANIFEST.json and galaxy.yml. MANIFEST.json marks an installed (built) collection dir; galaxy.yml marks a source dir. Ansible refuses to guess which representation to use, because build/download would use MANIFEST.json while source semantics expect galaxy.yml.

Source

Thrown at lib/ansible/galaxy/dependency_resolution/dataclasses.py:414

                    '{extra_tip!s}'.format(extra_tip=tip),
                )

        if req_type is None:
            if _is_git_url(src_path):
                req_type = 'git'
                req_source = src_path
            elif _is_http_url(src_path):
                req_type = 'url'
                req_source = src_path
            elif _is_file_path(src_path):
                req_type = 'file'
                req_source = src_path
            elif _is_collection_dir(src_path):
                if _is_installed_collection_dir(src_path) and _is_collection_src_dir(src_path):
                    # Note that ``download`` requires a dir with a ``galaxy.yml`` and fails if it
                    # doesn't exist, but if a ``MANIFEST.json`` also exists, it would be used
                    # instead of the ``galaxy.yml``.
                    raise AnsibleError(
                        u"Collection requirement at '{path!s}' has both a {manifest_json!s} "
                        u"file and a {galaxy_yml!s}.\nThe requirement must either be an installed "
                        u"collection directory or a source collection directory, not both.".
                        format(
                            path=to_text(src_path, errors='surrogate_or_strict'),
                            manifest_json=to_text(_MANIFEST_JSON),
                            galaxy_yml=to_text(_GALAXY_YAML),
                        )
                    )
                req_type = 'dir'
                req_source = src_path
            elif _is_collection_namespace_dir(src_path):
                req_name = None  # No name for a virtual req or "namespace."?
                req_type = 'subdirs'
                req_source = src_path
            else:
                raise AnsibleError(  # NOTE: this is never supposed to be hit
                    'Failed to automatically detect the collection '

View on GitHub (pinned to 9cf16a4aca)

Solutions

1. Decide the dir's role: for a source dir, delete MANIFEST.json; for an installed dir, delete galaxy.yml
2. Keep build output out of the source tree (build into dist/ and extract/install elsewhere)
3. If both are legitimately needed, use two separate directories and reference each explicitly

Example fix

# dir is both source and installed -> make it a pure source dir
rm ./my_collection/MANIFEST.json
ansible-galaxy collection install ./my_collection

import os

def validate_collection_dir(path):
    has_manifest = os.path.isfile(os.path.join(path, 'MANIFEST.json'))
    has_galaxy = os.path.isfile(os.path.join(path, 'galaxy.yml'))
    if has_manifest and has_galaxy:
        raise SystemExit(f'{path}: contains both MANIFEST.json and galaxy.yml; keep exactly one')

When it happens

Trigger: Pointing ansible-galaxy at a directory (type: dir or auto-detected from an existing path) that contains both files — typically a source checkout into which a built artifact was extracted, or a copy of an installed collection_dir combined with the original galaxy.yml.

Common situations: Developers building a collection in-place (`ansible-galaxy collection build` artifacts extracted into the repo); CI caches merging installed collections with source checkouts; copying an installed collection dir over a source dir.

Related errors

• The requirements file '%s' does not exist.
• Expecting requirements file to be a dict with the key 'colle
• Invalid offline source info for {namespace}.{name}:{version}
• Neither the collection requirement entry key 'name', nor 'so
• The collection requirement entry key 'type' must be one of f

AI-assisted analysis of ansible/ansible@9cf16a4aca (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/aa350139c9815ced. Report an issue: GitHub.