There are a few different ways to "end" plays.

• end_play will end a play for all hosts
• end_host will end a play for certain hosts
• any_errors_fatal will end all plays in a playbook (this article)

end_play and ansible.builtin.fail are also similar, but not exactly the same.

• end_play will end the play for all hosts and will consider the play "failed"
• ansible.builtin.fail will end the play for certain hosts and will NOT consider the play "failed"

For example, let's say you have the following playbook which uses any_error_fatal: true in the first play and also has ansible.builtin.fail in the first play.

---

- name: first play
  hosts: all
  any_errors_fatal: true
  tasks:
  - name: fail all plays for server1
    ansible.builtin.fail:
      msg: failing all plays for server1
    when: inventory_hostname == 'server1'
    
- name: second play
  hosts: all
  tasks
  - ansible.builtin.debug:
      msg: this is a task in the second play
...

Running this playbook should return something like this, where the second play is never invoked.

TASK [fail all plays for server2]
[ERROR]: Task failed: Action failed: failing all plays for server1

5   - name: fail all plays for server1
      ^ column 5

fatal: [server1.example.com]: FAILED! => {"changed": false, "msg": "failing all plays for server1"}

PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
server1.example.com : ok=18   changed=3    unreachable=0    failed=1    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0