diff --git a/roles/xos-install/defaults/main.yml b/roles/xos-install/defaults/main.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ba26bf6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/roles/xos-install/defaults/main.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+---
+# default variables for xos-install role
+
+xos_repo_url: "https://github.com/open-cloud/xos.git"
+xos_repo_dest: "~/xos"
+xos_repo_branch: "HEAD"