Robot Framework Installation, Setup, and Supported Libraries

1. Prerequisites

Before installing Robot Framework, make sure you have:

     1. Python (version 3.8 or above)
     2. pip (Python’s package manager)

If Python is not installed, download it from python.org/downloads
Check our tutorial for a complete Python installation and PATH setup guide: Python Installation

You can also read our Python Basics tutorial to get started.

2. Install Robot Framework

You can install Robot Framework easily using pip: pip install robotframework
To verify the installation: robot --version

3. Setting Up an IDE

You can write and run Robot Framework tests using:

     - RIDE (Robot Framework IDE)
     - Visual Studio Code with the RobotCode extension
     - PyCharm with the Robot Framework Language Server

In this tutorial, we’ll use Visual Studio Code (VS Code).

Set up in VS Code:

     1. Install VS Code
     2. Go to Extensions and search for: “Robot Framework Language Server”
     3. Install it to enable syntax highlighting, auto-completion, and test execution support.

4. Supported Libraries Overview

Robot Framework supports multiple libraries for different types of automation.

For now, let’s start with Web Automation using SeleniumLibrary.

SeleniumLibrary – for Web Automation

SeleniumLibrary is used to automate browsers such as Chrome, Edge, or Firefox.

Install SeleniumLibrary: pip install robotframework-seleniumlibrary

Download the browser drivers from

     - Chrome → https://chromedriver.chromium.org/
     - Edge → https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/webdriver/

Note: With Selenium 4 and above, the built-in Selenium Manager can automatically handle driver downloads and configuration in most environments, so manual setup is often unnecessary.