An experimental extension to Ansible is included that implements host connections over Mitogen, replacing embedded shell invocations with pure-Python equivalents invoked via highly efficient remote procedure calls tunnelled over SSH. No changes are required to the target hosts.

The extension isn’t nearly in a generally dependable state yet, however it already works well enough for testing against real-world playbooks. Bug reports in this area are very welcome – Ansible is a huge beast, and only significant testing will prove the extension’s soundness.