diff --git a/lib/ansible/runner.rb b/lib/ansible/runner.rb
index 432df502f18..d2933ae1172 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/runner.rb
+++ b/lib/ansible/runner.rb
@@ -24,13 +24,30 @@ def run_queue(env_vars, extra_vars, playbook_path, user_id, queue_opts)
       private
 
       def run_via_cli(env_vars, extra_vars, playbook_path)
-        result = AwesomeSpawn.run!(ansible_command, :env => env_vars, :params => [{:extra_vars => JSON.dump(extra_vars)}, playbook_path])
-        JSON.parse(result.output)
+        Dir.mktmpdir("ansible-runner") do |base_dir|
+          Dir.mkdir(File.join(base_dir, 'project')) # without this, there is a silent fail of the ansible-runner command see https://github.com/ansible/ansible-runner/issues/88
+
+          result = AwesomeSpawn.run!(ansible_command(base_dir),
+                                     :env    => env_vars,
+                                     :params => [{:cmdline  => "--extra-vars '#{JSON.dump(extra_vars)}'",
+                                                  :playbook => playbook_path}])
+
+          Ansible::Runner::Response.new(:return_code => return_code(base_dir),
+                                        :stdout      => result.output,
+                                        :stderr      => result.error)
+        end
+      end
+
+      def return_code(base_dir)
+        File.read(File.join(base_dir, "artifacts/result/rc")).to_i
+      rescue
+        _log.warn("Couldn't find ansible-runner return code")
+        1
       end
 
-      def ansible_command
+      def ansible_command(base_dir)
         # TODO add possibility to use custom path, e.g. from virtualenv
-        "ansible-playbook"
+        "ansible-runner run #{base_dir} --json -i result"
       end
     end
   end
diff --git a/lib/ansible/runner/response.rb b/lib/ansible/runner/response.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..3323ae429b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/ansible/runner/response.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+module Ansible
+  class Runner
+    class Response
+      include Vmdb::Logging
+
+      attr_reader :return_code, :stdout, :stderr, :parsed_stdout
+
+      def initialize(return_code:, stdout:, stderr:)
+        @return_code   = return_code
+        @stdout        = stdout
+        @parsed_stdout = parse_stdout(stdout)
+        @stderr        = stderr
+      end
+
+      private
+
+      def parse_stdout(stdout)
+        parsed_stdout = []
+
+        # output is JSON per new line
+        stdout.each_line do |line|
+          # TODO(lsmola) we can remove exception handling when this is fixed
+          # https://github.com/ansible/ansible-runner/issues/89#issuecomment-404236832 , so it fails early if there is
+          # a non json line
+          begin
+            parsed_stdout << JSON.parse(line)
+          rescue => e
+            _log.warn("Couldn't parse JSON from: #{e}")
+          end
+        end
+
+        parsed_stdout
+      end
+    end
+  end
+end