Labs & choosing how you run

Two setup ideas run through the whole course: from chapter 2 on, each chapter starts from a lab — a prepared project — and you choose how commands run. Both take a minute, and this lesson explains them before you need them.

Labs

When a chapter works against files, its lessons show a Lab card. A lab is a small, complete project: the files the chapter starts from, plus the pinned dependencies in uv.lock and requirements.txt, so everyone runs the exact same versions. The card offers:

a Download button for the lab’s .zip;
a one-line command that downloads and unpacks it into your current folder, for bash/zsh and for PowerShell;
the setup command for your runner, and how to open the folder in VS Code.

Each lab unpacks into its own folder, such as rfe-ch05-specification-styles/, so labs never overwrite each other or your own work. A few lessons start from a fresh lab in the middle of a chapter; their card says so. The course overview also offers a starter kit with every lab at once.

Choosing how you run — the “Run with” picker

Lessons with commands show a Run with picker, offering three ways to run Python commands. Every command example in the course adapts to your choice, and the choice sticks across pages:

uv (recommended) — one fast tool that manages both the virtual environment and the dependencies, and installs the right Python version when it is missing. Commands run through uv run.
venv — a plain Python virtual environment in a .venv folder. Activate it in each terminal; commands then run its executables directly.
poetry — the Poetry package manager handles the environment and dependencies; commands run through poetry run.

Switch the picker and watch this command change:

uv run robot --outputdir results checks

robot --outputdir results checks

poetry run robot --outputdir results checks

All three end up with Robot Framework installed and runnable — they differ only in the tool that builds the environment and installs packages. Pick the one your team already uses; uv is the smoothest if you have no preference.

Where the real setup happens

You don’t set anything up here. The next chapter’s setup lesson, Architecture and setup, walks you through creating a project and adding Robot Framework in whichever mode you picked — with the exact commands for your choice. From chapter 2 on, the labs arrive ready-made.

Answer the check below — and on to Robot Framework itself.

Learn how labs and the run options work

Read

Check your understanding

Quick recall. Your first answer stays in this browser; the quiz never blocks your progress.

What does a chapter's lab give you?
Show the answer
Answer: A ready-to-run project with the chapter's starting files and pinned dependencies — A lab is a complete project: the starting files plus uv.lock and requirements.txt, so one setup command gets you the exact versions everyone uses.
If you switch “Run with” from uv to venv, what happens?
Show the answer
Answer: Command examples adapt to venv, and the choice sticks across pages — The picker changes how commands are shown on every page: uv run robot checks becomes robot checks in an activated venv. Set each lab up once for the runner you chose.

Key terms

labconcept: A chapter's prepared project, downloaded as a .zip: starting files plus pinned dependencies, set up with one command.
Run withconcept: The uv / venv / poetry picker on lessons with commands; every command example adapts to it, and the choice sticks across pages.

All terms in the glossary →