> The first step is to run a bootstrap script, then run a tailor made playbook for each situation.

Up to you, but just in you weren't aware: ansible has a `raw:` task which enables one to run anything that the `connection:` transport tolerates, which can go a long way toward getting rid of any extraneous shell scripting

Further toward that goal, I found that PyPy is "untar and go" for every distribution that I've cared about, so even getting python on the machine can similarly be bootstrap friendly