robotframework-browser

What it is and what it does

robotframework-browser is a Robot Framework library that wraps Playwright to automate browser interactions—opening pages, clicking elements, extracting text, and verifying page content. It supports Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit across Windows, macOS, and Linux. The library can be used from Robot Framework test syntax or directly from Python, though some Robot Framework-specific features (like automatic cleanup and run-on-failure hooks) depend on the framework's listener or dynamic library API when called from Python.

Installation has two main paths: use robotframework-browser-batteries for a simpler setup with precompiled Node binaries (no NodeJS required), or install with NodeJS 22, 24, or 26 LTS for more flexibility. The library depends on grpcio, protobuf, robotframework, wrapt, click, and other utilities. Browser binaries (Chromium, Firefox, WebKit) are installed separately via the rfbrowser command-line tool and add roughly 700 MB to disk. The library is actively maintained, production-stable, and supports current Python versions (3.10+).

Use it for:

• Write automated web UI tests in Robot Framework syntax that run against multiple browsers without code changes
• Verify web application functionality by automating user interactions like form submission and navigation
• Build cross-browser regression test suites for web applications using Playwright's speed and reliability
• Automate repetitive web tasks (data entry, screenshot capture, content extraction) via Robot Framework keywords
• Integrate browser automation into CI/CD pipelines with Robot Framework's reporting and logging

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Browser automation library for Robot Framework that uses Playwright to control Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit browsers for testing and web automation.

Yes. robotframework-browser is actively maintained, production-stable, permissively licensed, has low install friction, and sits in the top 5000 PyPI packages by downloads. Install it if you need to automate browser testing in Robot Framework or Python. Choose robotframework-browser-batteries if your OS/architecture is supported and you want to skip NodeJS setup; otherwise install with NodeJS 22, 24, or 26 LTS. No known security vulnerabilities.

Install

robotframework-browser on PyPI

pip install robotframework-browser

uv add robotframework-browser

poetry add robotframework-browser

Installing robotframework-browser

Before you install

Low friction installation with a pure-Python wheel. Requires Python 3.10 or newer. Two installation paths: with precompiled binaries via robotframework-browser-batteries (simpler, platform-dependent), or with NodeJS installed locally (more flexible). Recently active maintenance with a release 7 days ago.

License in practice

Apache-2.0 permissive license allows commercial and private use with minimal restrictions—suitable for most projects.

Quickstart

pip install robotframework-browser
rfbrowser install

# In a Robot Framework test file:
*** Settings ***
Library   Browser

*** Test Cases ***
Example
    New Page    https://example.com
    Get Text    h1

Python 3.10 or newer required. Installation also requires either NodeJS 22/24/26 LTS or the robotframework-browser-batteries package (platform-dependent availability). Browser binaries (~700 MB) are installed separately via rfbrowser install.

Verify before relying

• Whether all Robot Framework listener and dynamic library API features work when called directly from Python (description notes some are Robot Framework-dependent)
• Performance characteristics and scalability limits for large test suites
• Availability of robotframework-browser-batteries for your specific OS and processor architecture

Package facts

Evidence: robotframework_browser-20.3.0-py3-none-any.whl

Keywords: robotframework, playwright, testing, automation, web, browser

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Further reading