diff --git a/alpine/rex b/alpine/rex
index 92d575d..fd498dd 100755
--- a/alpine/rex
+++ b/alpine/rex
@@ -2,7 +2,12 @@
 
 cmd="$*"
 
-echo "Running on hosts: $cmd"
+# Build a temporary hosts file without comments (# ...) and blank lines
+tmp_hosts=$(mktemp)
+trap 'rm -f "$tmp_hosts"' EXIT
+sed -e 's/#.*$//' -e 's/[[:space:]]*$//' -e '/^[[:space:]]*$/d' /app/host_vars/hosts > "$tmp_hosts"
 
-pssh -h /app/host_vars/hosts -t 0 "$cmd"
+echo "Running on hosts: $(tr '\n' ' ' < "$tmp_hosts")"
+echo "Command: $cmd"
 
+pssh -h "$tmp_hosts" -t 0 "$cmd"
diff --git a/alpine/template b/alpine/template
index 3bdc469..96f29ac 100755
--- a/alpine/template
+++ b/alpine/template
@@ -21,7 +21,12 @@ case "$remotefile" in
 esac
 
 # Read hosts from file descriptor 3 to prevent ssh from consuming stdin
-while read -r host <&3; do
+while read -r host <&3 || [ -n "$host" ]; do
+  # Strip comments (# ...) and surrounding whitespace; skip empty lines
+  host="${host%%#*}"
+  host="${host//[[:space:]]/}"
+  [ -z "$host" ] && continue
+
   host_env_file="$host_vars_dir/$host/$host.env"
 
   if [ ! -f "$host_env_file" ]; then
diff --git a/app/vault/host_vars.img b/app/vault/host_vars.img
index 08baff2..c1f9f19 100644
Binary files a/app/vault/host_vars.img and b/app/vault/host_vars.img differ