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Robot Framework cheatsheet

A one-page reference for Robot Framework. For reporting and framework comparisons, see the complete guide.

📖 Full guide: Robot Framework → Beginner
Learn this in 5 minutes5 min
  1. Begin with the Suite file structure card
  2. Then the Built-in libraries and Custom keywords cards
  3. Treat the other 4 cards as lookups — scan by card title when you need one
  4. Open the full guide when a card isn't enough

Suite file structure​

*** Settings ***
Library    SeleniumLibrary

*** Variables ***
${URL}    https://example.com

*** Test Cases ***
Valid Login
    Open Browser    ${URL}    chrome
    Input Text      id:username    abhishek
    Click Button    Sign in
    Page Should Contain    Welcome

Built-in libraries​

LibraryUse
SeleniumLibraryweb UI
RequestsLibraryAPI testing
Collectionslist/dict helpers
OperatingSystemfiles, env vars

Custom keywords​

*** Keywords ***
Login As
    [Arguments]    ${user}    ${pass}
    Input Text      id:username    ${user}
    Input Text      id:password    ${pass}
    Click Button    Sign in

Reusable, human-readable — the keyword-driven equivalent of a Page Object method.

Data-driven testing​

*** Test Cases ***
Login Attempts
    [Template]    Try Login
    admin    right    success
    admin    wrong    error

Tags​

*** Test Cases ***
Smoke Test
    [Tags]    smoke    critical
robot --include smoke tests/

Reporting​

robot --outputdir results tests/

Generates log.html (step-by-step trace) and report.html (pass/fail summary) automatically — no extra plugin needed.

When to choose Robot Framework​

  • Team includes non-programmers who need to read/write test cases.
  • Keyword-driven style matters more than raw language flexibility.
  • Not ideal when tests need heavy custom logic — code-first frameworks (Selenium/Playwright + Java/Python) scale better there.
See: When to Choose Robot Framework Over a Code-First Framework