New schema[pattern] validator flags unrelated files as "pattern" type

[jlgoolsbee]

Summary

Files other than "pattern" type—specifically those ending in "pattern.json"—are being flagged for validation by the schema[pattern] validator.

Issue Type

• Bug Report

OS / ENVIRONMENT

[WARNING]: log file at '/var/log/ansible.log' is not writeable and we cannot create it, aborting

ansible-lint 25.7.0 using ansible-core:2.18.6 ansible-compat:25.6.0 ruamel-yaml:0.18.14 ruamel-yaml-clib:0.2.12
You are using a pre-release version of ansible-lint.

Note: I'm not sure why the output above includes the "pre-release" note; today is Aug 4 and 25.7.0 was released on July 29.

• ansible installation method: pip - 2.18.6
• ansible-lint installation method: pip - 25.7.0
• OS: mac OS 15.5
• python: 3.11.2

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

1. In a "files" directory, create a file with JSON content with a filename that ends with "pattern.json", e.g. some-filename-ending-with-pattern.json with contents like:

{
    "data": "of some kind",
    "nested_data": {
        "goes": [
            "here"
        ]
    }
}

2. Create a playbook that reads the JSON file:

---

- name: Sample playbook to print JSON file content
  hosts:
    - localhost

  tasks:
    - name: Print JSON file content
      ansible.builtin.debug:
        msg: "{{ lookup('file', 'some-filename-ending-with-pattern.json') | from_json }}"

3. Alternatively, create a role and place the example JSON file and task within the role and run the role from the playbook (it makes no difference)
4. Run ansible-lint

Desired Behavior

Files ending in "pattern.json" (like some-filename-ending-with-pattern.json) should not be parsed as "pattern" files and validated as-such.

Actual Behavior

$ ansible-lint -vvvv
DEBUG    Logging initialized to level 10
INFO     Identified / as project root due file system root.
DEBUG    Options: Options(_skip_ansible_syntax_check=False, cache_dir=PosixPath('/Users/lgoolsbee/testing/ansible-pattern-schema-example/.direnv/python-3.11/.ansible'), colored=True, configured=True, cwd=PosixPath('/Users/lgoolsbee/testing/ansible-pattern-schema-example'), display_relative_path=True, exclude_paths=['.cache', '.git', '.hg', '.svn', '.tox'], format=None, lintables=[], list_rules=False, list_tags=False, write_list=[], write_exclude_list=[], parseable=False, quiet=0, rulesdirs=[PosixPath('/Users/lgoolsbee/testing/ansible-pattern-schema-example/.direnv/python-3.11/lib/python3.11/site-packages/ansiblelint/rules')], skip_list=[], tags=[], verbosity=4, warn_list=['experimental', 'jinja[spacing]', 'fqcn[deep]'], mock_filters=[], mock_modules=[], mock_roles=[], loop_var_prefix=None, only_builtins_allow_collections=[], only_builtins_allow_modules=[], var_naming_pattern=None, offline=False, project_dir='/', extra_vars=None, enable_list=[], skip_action_validation=True, strict=False, rules={}, profile=None, task_name_prefix='{stem} | ', sarif_file=None, config_file=None, generate_ignore=False, rulesdir=[], use_default_rules=False, version=False, list_profiles=False, ignore_file=None, yamllint_file=None, max_tasks=100, max_block_depth=20, supported_ansible_also=[])[/]
DEBUG    CWD: /Users/lgoolsbee/testing/ansible-pattern-schema-example
WARNING  Project directory /.ansible cannot be used for caching as it is not writable.
DEBUG    Logging initialized to level 10
INFO     Collection paths was patched to include extra directories /Users/lgoolsbee/.ansible/collections,/usr/share/ansible/collections,/Users/lgoolsbee/testing/ansible-pattern-schema-example/.direnv/python-3.11/lib/python3.11/site-packages
DEBUG    Effective yamllint rules used: {'anchors': {'level': 'error', 'forbid-undeclared-aliases': True, 'forbid-duplicated-anchors': False, 'forbid-unused-anchors': False}, 'braces': {'level': 'error', 'forbid': False, 'min-spaces-inside': 0, 'max-spaces-inside': 1, 'min-spaces-inside-empty': -1, 'max-spaces-inside-empty': -1}, 'brackets': {'level': 'error', 'forbid': False, 'min-spaces-inside': 0, 'max-spaces-inside': 0, 'min-spaces-inside-empty': -1, 'max-spaces-inside-empty': -1}, 'colons': {'level': 'error', 'max-spaces-before': 0, 'max-spaces-after': 1}, 'commas': {'level': 'error', 'max-spaces-before': 0, 'min-spaces-after': 1, 'max-spaces-after': 1}, 'comments': {'level': 'warning', 'require-starting-space': True, 'ignore-shebangs': True, 'min-spaces-from-content': 1}, 'comments-indentation': False, 'document-end': False, 'document-start': False, 'empty-lines': {'level': 'error', 'max': 2, 'max-start': 0, 'max-end': 0}, 'empty-values': False, 'float-values': False, 'hyphens': {'level': 'error', 'max-spaces-after': 1}, 'indentation': {'level': 'error', 'spaces': 'consistent', 'indent-sequences': True, 'check-multi-line-strings': False}, 'key-duplicates': {'level': 'error', 'forbid-duplicated-merge-keys': False}, 'key-ordering': False, 'line-length': {'level': 'error', 'max': 160, 'allow-non-breakable-words': True, 'allow-non-breakable-inline-mappings': False}, 'new-line-at-end-of-file': {'level': 'error'}, 'new-lines': {'level': 'error', 'type': 'unix'}, 'octal-values': {'forbid-implicit-octal': True, 'forbid-explicit-octal': True, 'level': 'error'}, 'quoted-strings': False, 'trailing-spaces': {'level': 'error'}, 'truthy': {'level': 'warning', 'allowed-values': ['true', 'false'], 'check-keys': True}}
INFO     Set ANSIBLE_LIBRARY=/Users/lgoolsbee/testing/ansible-pattern-schema-example/.ansible/modules:/Users/lgoolsbee/.ansible/plugins/modules:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules
INFO     Set ANSIBLE_COLLECTIONS_PATH=/Users/lgoolsbee/testing/ansible-pattern-schema-example/.ansible/collections:/Users/lgoolsbee/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections:/Users/lgoolsbee/testing/ansible-pattern-schema-example/.direnv/python-3.11/lib/python3.11/site-packages
INFO     Set ANSIBLE_ROLES_PATH=/Users/lgoolsbee/testing/ansible-pattern-schema-example/.ansible/roles:/Users/lgoolsbee/.ansible/roles:/usr/share/ansible/roles:/etc/ansible/roles
DEBUG    Effective yamllint rules used: {'anchors': {'level': 'error', 'forbid-undeclared-aliases': True, 'forbid-duplicated-anchors': False, 'forbid-unused-anchors': False}, 'braces': {'level': 'error', 'forbid': False, 'min-spaces-inside': 0, 'max-spaces-inside': 1, 'min-spaces-inside-empty': -1, 'max-spaces-inside-empty': -1}, 'brackets': {'level': 'error', 'forbid': False, 'min-spaces-inside': 0, 'max-spaces-inside': 0, 'min-spaces-inside-empty': -1, 'max-spaces-inside-empty': -1}, 'colons': {'level': 'error', 'max-spaces-before': 0, 'max-spaces-after': 1}, 'commas': {'level': 'error', 'max-spaces-before': 0, 'min-spaces-after': 1, 'max-spaces-after': 1}, 'comments': {'level': 'warning', 'require-starting-space': True, 'ignore-shebangs': True, 'min-spaces-from-content': 1}, 'comments-indentation': False, 'document-end': False, 'document-start': False, 'empty-lines': {'level': 'error', 'max': 2, 'max-start': 0, 'max-end': 0}, 'empty-values': False, 'float-values': False, 'hyphens': {'level': 'error', 'max-spaces-after': 1}, 'indentation': {'level': 'error', 'spaces': 'consistent', 'indent-sequences': True, 'check-multi-line-strings': False}, 'key-duplicates': {'level': 'error', 'forbid-duplicated-merge-keys': False}, 'key-ordering': False, 'line-length': {'level': 'error', 'max': 160, 'allow-non-breakable-words': True, 'allow-non-breakable-inline-mappings': False}, 'new-line-at-end-of-file': {'level': 'error'}, 'new-lines': {'level': 'error', 'type': 'unix'}, 'octal-values': {'forbid-implicit-octal': True, 'forbid-explicit-octal': True, 'level': 'error'}, 'quoted-strings': False, 'trailing-spaces': {'level': 'error'}, 'truthy': {'level': 'warning', 'allowed-values': ['true', 'false'], 'check-keys': True}}
INFO     Loading ignores from .gitignore
DEBUG    Excluded: .DS_Store
DEBUG    Excluded: .ansible
DEBUG    Excluded: .direnv
DEBUG    Excluded: .python-version
DEBUG    data set to None for files/some-filename-ending-with-pattern.json due to being 'pattern' (text/json) kind.
DEBUG    data set to None for requirements.txt due to being '' (unknown) kind.
DEBUG    data set to None for .gitignore due to being '' (unknown) kind.
DEBUG    data set to None for .envrc due to being '' (unknown) kind.
INFO     Executing syntax check on playbook pb.test.yml (0.27s)
DEBUG    Examining files/some-filename-ending-with-pattern.json of type pattern
DEBUG    Running rule internal-error
DEBUG    Running rule load-failure
DEBUG    Running rule parser-error
DEBUG    Running rule warning
DEBUG    Running rule yaml
DEBUG    Running rule args
DEBUG    Running rule avoid-implicit
DEBUG    Running rule command-instead-of-module
DEBUG    Running rule command-instead-of-shell
DEBUG    Running rule complexity
DEBUG    Running rule deprecated-bare-vars
DEBUG    Running rule deprecated-local-action
DEBUG    Running rule deprecated-module
DEBUG    Running rule fqcn
DEBUG    Running rule galaxy
DEBUG    Running rule ignore-errors
DEBUG    Running rule inline-env-var
DEBUG    Running rule jinja
DEBUG    Running rule key-order
DEBUG    Running rule latest
DEBUG    Running rule literal-compare
DEBUG    Running rule loop-var-prefix
DEBUG    Running rule meta-incorrect
DEBUG    Running rule meta-no-tags
DEBUG    Running rule meta-runtime
DEBUG    Running rule meta-video-links
DEBUG    Running rule name
DEBUG    Running rule no-changed-when
DEBUG    Running rule no-free-form
DEBUG    Running rule no-handler
DEBUG    Running rule no-jinja-when
DEBUG    Running rule no-relative-paths
DEBUG    Running rule no-tabs
DEBUG    Running rule package-latest
DEBUG    Running rule partial-become
DEBUG    Running rule pattern
WARNING  Ignored exception from PatternRule.matchyaml while processing files/some-filename-ending-with-pattern.json (pattern): 'Could not extract playbook name'
DEBUG    Ignored exception details
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/lgoolsbee/testing/ansible-pattern-schema-example/.direnv/python-3.11/lib/python3.11/site-packages/ansiblelint/rules/pattern.py", line 147, in values_from_pattern_json
    playbook_name = data["aap_resources"]["controller_job_templates"][0][
                    ~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
KeyError: 'aap_resources'

The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/lgoolsbee/testing/ansible-pattern-schema-example/.direnv/python-3.11/lib/python3.11/site-packages/ansiblelint/_internal/rules.py", line 105, in getmatches
    matches.extend(method(file))
                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/Users/lgoolsbee/testing/ansible-pattern-schema-example/.direnv/python-3.11/lib/python3.11/site-packages/ansiblelint/rules/pattern.py", line 74, in matchyaml
    values = values_from_pattern_json(file.path)
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/Users/lgoolsbee/testing/ansible-pattern-schema-example/.direnv/python-3.11/lib/python3.11/site-packages/ansiblelint/rules/pattern.py", line 153, in values_from_pattern_json
    raise KeyError(msg) from exc
KeyError: 'Could not extract playbook name'[/]
DEBUG    Running rule playbook-extension
DEBUG    Running rule risky-file-permissions
DEBUG    Running rule risky-octal
DEBUG    Running rule risky-shell-pipe
DEBUG    Running rule role-name
DEBUG    Running rule run-once
DEBUG    Running rule sanity
DEBUG    Running rule schema
DEBUG    Running rule var-naming
DEBUG    Examining pb.test.yml of type playbook
DEBUG    Running rule internal-error
DEBUG    Running rule load-failure
DEBUG    Running rule parser-error
DEBUG    Running rule warning
DEBUG    Running rule yaml
DEBUG    Running rule args
DEBUG    Running rule avoid-implicit
DEBUG    Running rule command-instead-of-module
DEBUG    Running rule command-instead-of-shell
DEBUG    Running rule complexity
DEBUG    Running rule deprecated-bare-vars
DEBUG    Running rule deprecated-local-action
DEBUG    Running rule deprecated-module
DEBUG    Running rule fqcn
DEBUG    Running rule galaxy
DEBUG    Running rule ignore-errors
DEBUG    Running rule inline-env-var
DEBUG    Running rule jinja
DEBUG    NAME 'lookup' (prefix='')
DEBUG    LPAR '(' (prefix='')
DEBUG    STRING "'file'" (prefix='')
DEBUG    COMMA ',' (prefix='')
DEBUG    STRING "'some-filename-ending-with-pattern.json'" (prefix=' ')
DEBUG    RPAR ')' (prefix='')
DEBUG    VBAR '|' (prefix=' ')
DEBUG    NAME 'from_json' (prefix=' ')
DEBUG    NEWLINE '\n' (prefix=' ')
DEBUG    ENDMARKER '' (prefix='')
DEBUG    Stop.
DEBUG    NAME 'lookup' (prefix='')
DEBUG    LPAR '(' (prefix='')
DEBUG    STRING "'file'" (prefix='')
DEBUG    COMMA ',' (prefix='')
DEBUG    STRING "'some-filename-ending-with-pattern.json'" (prefix=' ')
DEBUG    RPAR ')' (prefix='')
DEBUG    VBAR '|' (prefix=' ')
DEBUG    NAME 'from_json' (prefix=' ')
DEBUG    NEWLINE '\n' (prefix='')
DEBUG    ENDMARKER '' (prefix='')
DEBUG    Stop.
DEBUG    Running rule key-order
DEBUG    Running rule latest
DEBUG    Running rule literal-compare
DEBUG    Running rule loop-var-prefix
DEBUG    Running rule meta-incorrect
DEBUG    Running rule meta-no-tags
DEBUG    Running rule meta-runtime
DEBUG    Running rule meta-video-links
DEBUG    Running rule name
DEBUG    Running rule no-changed-when
DEBUG    Running rule no-free-form
DEBUG    Running rule no-handler
DEBUG    Running rule no-jinja-when
DEBUG    Running rule no-relative-paths
DEBUG    Running rule no-tabs
DEBUG    Running rule package-latest
DEBUG    Running rule partial-become
DEBUG    Running rule pattern
DEBUG    Running rule playbook-extension
DEBUG    Running rule risky-file-permissions
DEBUG    Running rule risky-octal
DEBUG    Running rule risky-shell-pipe
DEBUG    Running rule role-name
DEBUG    Running rule run-once
DEBUG    Running rule sanity
DEBUG    Running rule schema
DEBUG    Running rule var-naming
WARNING  Listing 1 violation(s) that are fatal
schema[pattern]: $ 'schema_version' is a required property
files/some-filename-ending-with-pattern.json:1  Returned errors will not include exact line numbers, but they will mention
the schema name being used as a tag, like ``schema[playbook]``,
``schema[tasks]``.

This rule is not skippable and stops further processing of the file.

If incorrect schema was picked, you might want to either:

* move the file to standard location, so its file is detected correctly.
* use ``kinds:`` option in linter config to help it pick correct file type.
[/]

DEBUG    Attempting to release lock 4372445584 on /Users/lgoolsbee/testing/ansible-pattern-schema-example/.direnv/python-3.11/.ansible/.lock
DEBUG    Lock 4372445584 released on /Users/lgoolsbee/testing/ansible-pattern-schema-example/.direnv/python-3.11/.ansible/.lock
Read documentation for instructions on how to ignore specific rule violations.

DEBUG    Determined rule-profile order: {'internal-error': (0, 'min'), 'load-failure': (1, 'min'), 'parser-error': (2, 'min'), 'syntax-check': (3, 'min'), 'command-instead-of-module': (4, 'basic'), 'command-instead-of-shell': (5, 'basic'), 'deprecated-bare-vars': (6, 'basic'), 'deprecated-local-action': (7, 'basic'), 'deprecated-module': (8, 'basic'), 'inline-env-var': (9, 'basic'), 'key-order': (10, 'basic'), 'literal-compare': (11, 'basic'), 'jinja': (12, 'basic'), 'no-free-form': (13, 'basic'), 'no-jinja-when': (14, 'basic'), 'no-tabs': (15, 'basic'), 'partial-become': (16, 'basic'), 'playbook-extension': (17, 'basic'), 'role-name': (18, 'basic'), 'schema': (19, 'basic'), 'name': (20, 'basic'), 'var-naming': (21, 'basic'), 'yaml': (22, 'basic'), 'name[template]': (23, 'moderate'), 'name[imperative]': (24, 'moderate'), 'name[casing]': (25, 'moderate'), 'spell-var-name': (26, 'moderate'), 'avoid-implicit': (27, 'safety'), 'latest': (28, 'safety'), 'package-latest': (29, 'safety'), 'risky-file-permissions': (30, 'safety'), 'risky-octal': (31, 'safety'), 'risky-shell-pipe': (32, 'safety'), 'galaxy': (33, 'shared'), 'ignore-errors': (34, 'shared'), 'layout': (35, 'shared'), 'meta-incorrect': (36, 'shared'), 'meta-no-tags': (37, 'shared'), 'meta-video-links': (38, 'shared'), 'meta-version': (39, 'shared'), 'meta-runtime': (40, 'shared'), 'no-changed-when': (41, 'shared'), 'no-changelog': (42, 'shared'), 'no-handler': (43, 'shared'), 'no-relative-paths': (44, 'shared'), 'max-block-depth': (45, 'shared'), 'max-tasks': (46, 'shared'), 'unsafe-loop': (47, 'shared'), 'pattern': (48, 'production'), 'avoid-dot-notation': (49, 'production'), 'sanity': (50, 'production'), 'fqcn': (51, 'production'), 'import-task-no-when': (52, 'production'), 'meta-no-dependencies': (53, 'production'), 'single-entry-point': (54, 'production'), 'use-loop': (55, 'production')}[/]
# Rule Violation Summary

  1 schema profile:basic tags:core

DEBUG    Found virtualenv, assuming `pip3 install` will work.
DEBUG    Registered VCS backend: bzr
DEBUG    Registered VCS backend: git
DEBUG    Registered VCS backend: hg
DEBUG    Registered VCS backend: svn
DEBUG    Found ansible-lint 25.7.0 dist
Failed: 1 failure(s), 0 warning(s) on 5 files. Last profile that met the validation criteria was 'min'.

[jlgoolsbee]

I don't know the inner workings of ansible-lint very well, but I went looking for the root cause by reviewing the merged PR for this validator (#4653) and found the following block in src/ansiblelint/config.py:

DEFAULT_KINDS = [
    # Do not sort this list, order matters.
    {"jinja2": "**/*.j2"},  # jinja2 templates are not always parsable as something else
    # ... several lines ommited for brevity ...
    {"pattern": "**/extensions/patterns/*/meta/pattern.json"},

... so if this is the pattern for files that should be caught by the schema[pattern] validator, I'm not sure how/why files that obviously don't fit that pattern are being identified as "pattern" type 🤔