Robot Framework cheatsheet

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

📖 Full guide: Robot Framework →

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

Library	Use
SeleniumLibrary	web UI
RequestsLibrary	API testing
Collections	list/dict helpers
OperatingSystem	files, 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