RobotCode - Language support for Robot Framework for Visual Studio Code


An extension which brings support for RobotFramework
to Visual Studio Code, including features like code completion, debugging, test explorer, refactoring and more!
Quick start
Install a supported version of Python on your system
(note: only Python 3.8 and above are supported)
Install a supported version of RobotFramwork on your system (note: only RobotFramework 4.0 and above are supported)
Install the RobotCode extension for Visual Studio Code.
Open or create a robot file and start coding! 😉
Requirements
- Python 3.8 or above
- Robotframework 4.1 and above
- VSCode version 1.74 and above
Features
With RobotCode you can edit your code with auto-completion, code navigation, syntax checking and many more.
Here is a list of Features:
Autocomplete and IntelliSense
Autocompletion for:
- Libraries with parameters
- Resources,
- Variables
- Keywords with parameters
- Namespaces

Autocompletion supports all supported variables types
- local variables
- variables from resource files
- variables from variables file (.py and .yaml)
- command line variables
- builtin variables

Code Navigation
- Symbols
- Goto definitions and implementations
- Keywords
- Variables
- Libraries
- Resources
- Find references
- Keywords
- Variables
- Imports
- Libraries
- Resources
- Variables
- Tags
- Errors and Warnings
Diagnostics and Linting
RobotCode analyse your code and show diagnostics for:
- Syntax Errors
- Unknown keywords
- Duplicate keywords
- Missing libraries, resource and variable imports
- Duplicate libraries, resource and variable imports
- ... and many more
For most things RobotCode uses the installed RobotFramework version to parse and analyse the code, so you get the same errors as when you run it.
Get additional code analysis with Robocop. Just install it in your python environment.
RobotCode can format your code with the internal RobotFramework robot.tidy tool (deprecated), but also with Robotidy. Just install it.
Running and Debugging
RobotCode supports running and debugging of RobotFramework testcases and tasks out of the box, directly from the definition of the test or suite.

In the debug console you can see all log messages of the current run and navigate to the keyword the message was written by.
Multi-root Workspace folders
RobotCodes support for Multi-root Workspaces, enables loading and editing different Robotframework projects/folders with different RobotFramework/Python environments and settings at the same time or you can share the same RobotFramework/Python environment and settings for all folders in the workspace.
Installed extensions
RobotCode will automatically install Python extension.
Extensions installed through the marketplace are subject to the Marketplace Terms of Use.
Setting up your environment
You can alway use your local python environment, just select the correct python interpreter in Visual Studio Code.
With pipenv
This is the simpliest way to create an running environment.
As a prerequisite you need to install pipenv like this:
python -m pip install pipenv
Create your project directory (robottest is just an example)
mkdir robottest
cd robottest
Install robotframework
python -m pipenv install robotframework
Open project in VSCode
Set the python interpreter to the created virtual environment
Customization
Editor Style
You can change some stylings for RobotFramework files in VSCode editor, independently of the current theme. (see Customizing a Color Theme)
See the difference:
Before |
After |
 |
 |
As a template you can put the following code to your user settings of VSCode.
Open the user settings.json
like this:
Ctrl + Shift + P or F1 or CMD + Shift + P
and then type:
Preferences: Open Settings (JSON)
put this to the settings.json
"editor.tokenColorCustomizations": {
"textMateRules": [
{
"scope": "variable.function.keyword-call.inner.robotframework",
"settings": {
"fontStyle": "italic"
}
},
{
"scope": "variable.function.keyword-call.robotframework",
"settings": {
//"fontStyle": "bold"
}
},
{
"scope": "string.unquoted.embeddedArgument.robotframework",
"settings": {
"fontStyle": "italic"
}
},
{
"scope": "entity.name.function.testcase.name.robotframework",
"settings": {
"fontStyle": "bold underline"
}
},
{
"scope": "entity.name.function.keyword.name.robotframework",
"settings": {
"fontStyle": "bold italic"
}
},
{
"scope": "variable.other.readwrite.robotframework",
"settings": {
//"fontStyle": "italic",
}
},
{
"scope": "keyword.control.import.robotframework",
"settings": {
"fontStyle": "italic"
}
},
{
"scope": "keyword.other.header.setting.robotframework",
"settings": {
"fontStyle": "bold underline"
}
},
{
"scope": "keyword.other.header.variable.robotframework",
"settings": {
"fontStyle": "bold underline"
}
},
{
"scope": "keyword.other.header.testcase.robotframework",
"settings": {
"fontStyle": "bold underline"
}
},
{
"scope": "keyword.other.header.keyword.robotframework",
"settings": {
"fontStyle": "bold underline"
}
},
{
"scope": "keyword.other.header.setting.robotframework",
"settings": {
"fontStyle": "bold underline"
}
},
{
"scope": "keyword.other.header.comment.robotframework",
"settings": {
"fontStyle": "bold italic underline"
}
},
{
"scope": "constant.character.escape.robotframework",
"settings": {
//"foreground": "#FF0000",
}
}
]
},
"editor.semanticTokenColorCustomizations": {
"rules": {
"*.documentation:robotframework": {
"fontStyle": "italic",
//"foreground": "#aaaaaa"
}
}
}