Playbooks (config-weave)

Declarative guest configuration via config-weave: playbook {} blocks apply on vmlab up interleaved with provisions, re-run on demand with vmlab playbook check|apply, and drive template builds.

Where wscript provisions *drive* a guest imperatively, a playbook declares what the guest should look like and lets config-weave converge it — package installs, files, services, domain joins — with drift detection and idempotent re-runs. vmlab integrates config-weave natively: playbook {} blocks declared inside a vm {} or container {} are applied during vmlab up, interleaved with that machine's provision {} blocks in declaration order, so imperative and declarative steps can hand off to each other. Playbooks push over the vmlab-agent channel, so they need agent-baked templates and work with no guest network; guest reboots demanded by a step (Windows feature installs, domain joins) are handled automatically.

vmlab playbook list                 # declarations + any in-flight runs
vmlab playbook check dc01           # report drift, change nothing (re-pushes first)
vmlab playbook apply dc01           # converge; auto-reboots when a step demands it

Exit codes mirror config-weave: 0 converged/clean, 1 step error, 2 validation failure, 3 reboot still required after bounded retries. --playbook <path> / --play <name> disambiguate when a machine declares several. Targeting is structural: the machine that declares the block is the one the play converges. That is also where its variables live — `var "name" { value = "…" } children become --var name=value` for that machine's run only, so one play can converge several machines with different hostnames, credentials or paths. The designer's play card lists every targeted machine with an editable variable list under each. Playbooks also run inside template builds: a template {} may declare playbook {} blocks that apply to the build VM, again interleaved with provisions, with steps streaming as structured build progress. In the web console, machine pages grow a Playbook tab (check/apply with live output), the designer shows playbook nodes on the canvas, and the Files tab edits playbook folders directly — including config-weave package search/add buttons and a repos manager.