The OrderSettings formatter automatically reorders Robot Framework settings (like [Arguments], [Setup], [Tags], etc.) within Test Cases and Keywords to ensure a consistent structure.

Test Case Ordering

• Before the body: [Documentation], [Metadata], [Tags], [Template], [Timeout], and [Setup] are moved to the top of the test case.
• After the body: [Teardown] is moved to the end of the test case.
• Note: [Metadata] requires Robot Framework 7.5+ and can appear multiple times; all occurrences are preserved in their original relative order.

Keyword Ordering

• Before the body: [Documentation], [Tags], [Timeout], [Arguments], and [Setup] are moved to the top of the keyword.
• After the body: [Teardown] and [Return] are moved to the end of the keyword.

*** Test Cases ***
Test
    [Documentation]    Test documentation.
    [Tags]    tags
    [Template]    Template
    [Timeout]    60 min
    [Setup]    Setup
    Test Step
    [Teardown]    Teardown


*** Keywords ***
Keyword
    [Documentation]    this is
    ...    doc
    [Tags]    sanity
    [Arguments]    ${arg}
    Pass
    [Teardown]    Keyword
    [Return]    ${value}

The RenameVariables formatter renames and normalizes variable names across Settings, Variables, Test Cases, Keywords, and Tasks sections, including variables in arguments.

Default Conventions:

• Case: Local variables are lowercase; non-local (global) variables are uppercase.
• Whitespace: Leading/trailing whitespace is stripped; multiple consecutive whitespaces are collapsed to one; spaces are replaced by _ (or a configured separator).
• Naming: camelCase is converted to snake_case.

Limitations:

• Variables passed by variable (e.g., $var) are currently ignored.
• Renaming camelCase to snake_case may break keyword calls using keyword arguments (kwargs) if the call site is not updated.

To locally disable this formatter for specific code blocks, use # robocop format: off.

*** Settings ***
Suite Setup    ${keyword}  # Becomes ${KEYWORD}

*** Variables ***
${global}    String    # Becomes ${GLOBAL}

*** Test Cases ***
Test
    ${local}    Set Variable    val  # Stays ${local}
    Log    ${global}               # Becomes ${GLOBAL}

*** Keywords ***
Keyword
    [Arguments]    ${ARG}          # Becomes ${arg}
    Log    ${arg}

Robocop supports hierarchical configuration. You can place different configuration files (e.g., pyproject.toml) in different subdirectories to apply specific rules or exclusions to those specific directories.

Files in a subdirectory will use the configuration closest to them. For example, a pyproject.toml in a subdir/ will apply to files within that subdirectory, allowing you to override or extend the project-level configuration.

Note: Settings that affect the entire run (such as --persistent, --exit-zero, or report generation) are only loaded from the configuration file closest to the current working directory or from the CLI, not from nested files.

project/
    file1.robot        # uses project/pyproject.toml
    pyproject.toml     # config1
    subdir/
        file1.robot    # uses project/subdir/pyproject.toml
        file2.robot    # uses project/subdir/pyproject.toml
        pyproject.toml # config2

Project-level rules (marked with the [project] tag) analyze the entire project context rather than individual files. This allows Robocop to detect issues like unused keywords or circular imports.

Important Behaviors:

• Disabled by Default: Project rules are disabled by default and must be explicitly selected.
• Context Building: When at least one project rule is enabled, Robocop parses every source file in the project to build a global index of keywords, variables, and imports.
• Execution Risk: To analyze libraries, Robocop executes the code of imported libraries and Python variable files. Use --no-analyze-libraries to skip this or --ignored-library to skip specific ones.
• Performance: Project analysis is slower than file-level linting. Use --no-project to skip project context building in fast environments like pre-commit hooks.

# Run only project-level rules
robocop check --select PROJECT

# Run default rules AND all project-level rules
robocop check --extend-select PROJECT

# Run every rule (default + project) explicitly
robocop check --select ALL --extend-select PROJECT

# Skip project analysis for speed
robocop check --no-project

The SmartSortKeywords formatter sorts keywords within the *** Keywords *** section of Robot Framework files.

Default Behavior:

• Case Insensitivity: Sorting is case-insensitive by default.
• Leading Underscores: Keywords starting with an underscore (_) are moved to the bottom of the list.
• Underscore Treatment: Underscores within a keyword name (that are not leading) are treated as spaces for sorting purposes.
• Whitespace Preservation: Empty lines (or the lack thereof) between keywords are preserved during the sorting process.

You can customize this behavior using the following parameters:

• case_insensitive
• ignore_leading_underscore
• ignore_other_underscore

*** Keywords ***
_my secrete keyword
    Kw2

My Keyword
    Kw1


my_another_cool_keyword
my another keyword
    Kw3

Becomes (Sorted):

*** Keywords ***
my_another_cool_keyword

my another keyword
    Kw3


My Keyword
    Kw1
_my secrete keyword
    Kw2