Setup, Teardown & Test Organization

Setup and teardown keywords define lifecycle boundaries: what must be true before work starts, and what must run to release resources even when the test fails. Robot runs teardown in a finally-like manner so you can trust cleanup code.

Setup / teardown levels

Level	Setting	Runs when
Suite	Suite Setup / Suite Teardown	Once before / after all tests in the suite file.
Test	Test Setup / Test Teardown	Before / after each test case in that suite.
Keyword	[Setup] / [Teardown] on a user keyword	Around that keyword’s execution (nested scopes possible).

Suite scope is ideal for expensive one-time work (start browser once). Test scope is ideal for resetting state so cases do not depend on order.

Teardown always runs

If the test body fails, test teardown still executes. Put close browser, logout, delete temp rows, and release locks here—not only at the end of the happy path.

Common use cases

Concern	Typical placement
Environment / feature flags	Suite Setup
Open browser, base URL	Suite Setup; Suite Teardown closes
Per-test data seed	Test Setup
API auth token per test	Test Setup or dedicated keyword with [Setup]
Screenshots on failure	Test Teardown + Run Keyword If Test Failed

Example: suite-level browser management

*** Settings ***
Library           Browser
Suite Setup       Open Browser Context
Suite Teardown    Close Browser    ALL

*** Keywords ***
Open Browser Context
    New Browser    chromium    headless=${HEADLESS}
    New Context
    New Page       ${BASE_URL}/login

Example: test-level data cleanup

*** Settings ***
Test Teardown     Run Keywords    Run Keyword If Test Failed    Take Screenshot    AND    Delete Test User    ${TEST_USER_ID}

*** Keywords ***
Delete Test User
    [Arguments]    ${user_id}
    API Delete User    ${user_id}

Test organization

Practice	Detail
Tags	Examples: smoke, regression, critical, api, ui.
Selective runs	robot --include smoke / --exclude slow (same tags work under pabot).
Suite layout	One directory or file per feature/domain; avoid mega-files.
Naming	Test names read as behavior: Login Fails With Invalid Password.

Useful robot CLI options

Option	Purpose
--outputdir DIR	Separate artifacts per job or matrix cell.
--log log.html	HTML log path.
--report report.html	HTML report path.
--variable NAME:value	Override ${NAME} without editing files (secrets via CI, not committed).

Example: full local run

robot \
  --outputdir results/smoke \
  --log results/smoke/log.html \
  --report results/smoke/report.html \
  --variable ENV:staging \
  --include smoke \
  tests/

Use the same structure in CI; only the ENV and credentials injection mechanism change.