The author's example of using loop data out of loops is overlooking anchors and aliases in YAML. His example can be rewritten as: - hosts: all tasks:

The author's example of using loop data out of loops is overlooking anchors and aliases in YAML. His example can be rewritten as: - hosts: all tasks: - name: Install distro packages package: name: "{{ item }}" state: present with_list: &packages - git - htop tags: *packages