What is idempotency in the context of Ansible?

Idempotency in Ansible means that running the same playbook or task multiple times does not change the system's state after the first successful application.

That is, if the system is already in the desired state, rerunning it will not change it or cause errors.

For example, if a task creates a user, rerunning it will not create the user again but will simply check that the user already exists.

This is important for reliable automation — you can safely repeat playbooks without risking breaking the configuration.

An example of a task that ensures idempotency:

- name: Create a user
  user:
    name: deploy
    state: present

If the user already exists, the task will not change anything.