December News — Wrapping Up the Year

🤝 Support the Robot Framework Foundation

Join the Foundation! With 80+ member companies, we work together to grow Robot Framework, its ecosystem, and its amazing community.

And in true Finnish-association fashion 🇫🇮, our members have spoken:
we have a new Board of Directors for 2026 — or, as the saying goes, the king is dead, long live the king… though in our case, most of the royal court stayed exactly the same. 😉

2026 Board of Directors

• René Rohner – imbus AG (Germany) – Chairperson

• Markus Stahl – imbus AG (Germany)

• Gerwin Laagland – BQA (Netherlands)

• David Fogl – Continero (Czechia)

• Many Kasiriha – Schenker AG (Germany)

• Tatu Kairi – Eficode (Finland)

• Jani Haapala – Gofore Oyj (Finland)

• Elout van Leeuwen – Capgemini (Netherlands)

A big thank you to all members for an impactful 2025 — and warm welcome to anyone joining for 2026. No better time than now. 💚

🚀 Ecosystem Updates & New Releases

Over the past weeks, the Robot Framework ecosystem has kept shipping: new betas and release candidates, fresh libraries, and handy tooling updates to close out 2025 on a high note.

Robot Framework 7.4 rc2

Latest preview for the upcoming 7.4 feature release, focused on secret variables and typed standard-library keywords.

• Secret variables across core and standard libraries (including OperatingSystem and Process)

• Typed keywords in standard libraries and better handling of bytes

• Release candidate aimed at flushing out regressions before the final release

• Release notes

SeleniumLibrary 6.8.0

New SeleniumLibrary release with updated platform support and screenshot improvements.

• Adds support for Python 3.14

• Extends and refines screenshot-related functionality

• Keeps compatibility with Selenium 4.28.1–4.34.2 and Robot Framework 6.1.1 / 7.3.2

• Release info

Browser Library 19.12.0

Fresh Browser release aligned with the latest Playwright and installation changes.

• Updates installation flow to match Playwright 1.57.0’s switch from Chromium to Chrome for testing

• Adjusts rfbrowser init supported browsers accordingly

• Supports Python 3.10+, Node 20/22/24 LTS, and Robot Framework 6.1+

• Release notes

Robotdashboard 1.4.0

Dashboard update with new filtering options and UI improvements.

• Fixes incorrect stats on the first donut graph in the overview page

• Adds “same status” filters to test statistics and comparison graphs

• Includes several styling and dashboard-view improvements

• Release notes

SchemathesisLibrary 1.2.0

API-testing library update with better auth support.

• Updates underlying Schemathesis to 4.7.0

• Adds authentication support to Call* keywords

• Release notes

RobotMCP 0.24.0

AI-powered test-automation bridge gets a dashboard and plugin architecture.

• New optional frontend dashboard for live session and keyword monitoring

• Library integrations moved to a robotmcp.plugins system (Browser/Selenium/Requests plugins included)

• Tooling streamlined around a smaller “core” set of MCP operations

• Release notes

DocTestLibrary (Visual Document Testing) – latest updates

DocTestLibrary continues to evolve with smarter PDF and image comparison features.

• Structure-aware PDF comparison for layout-sensitive checks

• Optional LLM-assisted comparison for images and PDFs via OpenAI-compatible endpoints

• Extra controls for movement detection in PDF comparisons

• Project page & docs

RobotFramework TableLibrary 0.1.1

New library for working with tabular data directly in tests.

• Unified keywords for CSV, Excel, Parquet, JSON, TXT-as-CSV and more

• Read, validate, modify, and create tables in memory, then write them back to disk

• Built on top of robotframework-assertion-engine for assertions

• Repository & docs

RF-Prompt-Forge (new project)

Prompt collection to make generic LLMs behave like Robot Framework experts.

• Expert-crafted prompts for setup, Browser tests, SeleniumLibrary, RequestsLibrary, SSHLibrary, AppiumLibrary and more

• Designed to reduce outdated/wrong RF answers from LLMs

• Includes tutorial prompts now also referenced from robotframework.org

• Repository
  
  

Rellu 2.0.1

Release tooling for Robot Framework projects moves fully into Markdown.

• 2.x line introduces markdown-based release-note support

• 1.x line (reStructuredText) remains for compatibility; 1.0.1/2.0.1 fix version-setting issues

• Project page

RIDE 2.2.1

Latest RIDE desktop IDE release with updated features and translations.

• New features and improvements around the Files Explorer and project configuration

• Follow-up 2.2.1.1 planned mainly for updated translated UI content

• Announcement & notes

robotframework-find-unused 0.3.0

Static-analysis tool to locate unused keywords, arguments, returns, and variables.

• Easier CLI usage and improved configuration

• Can now analyze downloaded/built-in libraries as well as local suites

• Release notes

Robot Framework OpenApiTools 1.0.5

API tooling update for OpenAPI-driven library generation.

• Fixes handling of parameters defined at path level in OpenAPI specs

• Additional bug fixes and more interactive generate-library behavior in recent 1.0.x releases

• Project & docs

robocop-mcp 1.7.0

MCP companion for Robocop to help auto-fix linter findings.

• Adds support for rule-name–based configuration (not just rule IDs)

• Improves format reruns and configuration via TOML files (robocop.toml / robot.toml) in earlier 1.x releases

• Release notes

💡 Have a new release coming up?
Let us know in Slack or drop us a note — we’re happy to feature your tool, library, or plugin in the next newsletter.

🎫 RoboCon 2026 – Program Out Now!

The full RoboCon 2026 program is now live! Workshops, talks, tutorials, Community Day, and a refreshed online edition spanning multiple time zones.

If RoboCon is on your 2026 roadmap, this is a great moment to secure your ticket while the end-of-year discounts are active.

Explore the program & tickets.

📍 In-Person in Helsinki

• Workshops & Community Day: 10–11 February 2026

• Conference: 12–13 February 2026

💻 Global Online Edition

• Workshops: 3 March 2026

• Conference Day 1 (EMEA/Asia friendly): 4 March 2026

• Conference Day 2 (Americas friendly): 5 March 2026

• Community Day: 6 March 2026

🎉 Watch Parties: A Local + Global RoboCon Experience

This year brings something special: RoboCon Watch Parties — a new way to gather your local community while staying fully connected to the global event.

Whether you’re joining from your office, meetup group, or user community, Watch Parties create local hotspots of learning and energy. It’s the next best thing to being in Helsinki.

More info.

🎥 Want a feel for the vibe?

Here’s the RoboCon aftermovie from last time — a quick reminder of why this event is such a highlight!

With the year wrapping up, things are quiet on the event front — but RoboCon 2026 is almost here. If you’re thinking about hosting a Watch Party for the online conference, now’s the perfect moment to get the ball rolling.

And thank you to everyone who brought the community together in 2025. A new year is coming — who is planning a new group or new event for 2026? 😉

👉 Check the #Events section on robotframework.org or the Events info doc to stay up to date with all upcoming happenings.