Try the Dev Builds

Between two releases, RobotCode publishes dev builds of the VS Code extension, the PyCharm plugin and the Python packages, built from the main branch. A new one comes out in the night after main has changed, if the CI run of its latest state has passed; a night without changes brings none. A dev build brings the newest fixes and features before the next release, and it can still contain bugs. Use it to try out a fix early or to help test the next release.

After an update to a release, RobotCode tells you about it with "RobotCode has been updated to v…" and a What's New? button. Dev builds don't show this notification.

VS Code

1. Open the Extensions view and select RobotCode - Robot Framework Support.
2. Choose Switch to Pre-Release Version on its page.

VS Code installs the newest dev build and from then on updates RobotCode to each new one. A dev build has a patch number of 100000 or more, such as 2.7.100631, because the VS Code Marketplace does not accept versions such as 2.8.0-dev.631.

To go back, choose Switch to Release Version on the same page. VS Code then installs the newest release.

VSCodium and other editors that install their extensions from Open VSX get the same dev builds there.

PyCharm

The dev builds of the plugin are in the channel dev of the JetBrains Marketplace. PyCharm only offers them after you add that channel as a plugin repository:

1. Open Settings | Plugins (Ctrl+Alt+S, Cmd+, on macOS), click the gear icon and choose Manage Plugin Repositories….
2. In the Custom Plugin Repositories dialog, add https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugins/dev/26216 and click OK.
3. Update RobotCode on the Installed tab, or install it from the Marketplace tab, and restart PyCharm when it asks you to.

A dev build of the plugin has a version such as 2.8.0-dev.631.

To go back, remove the address again in Manage Plugin Repositories…. PyCharm counts a dev build as newer than the release with the same version number, 2.8.0-dev.631 as newer than 2.8.0, so it keeps the dev build until a release with a higher number comes out. To switch to the newest release at once, uninstall RobotCode and install it again from the Marketplace tab.

Command line and other editors

The VS Code extension and the PyCharm plugin bring their own RobotCode packages, and their dev builds bring the matching dev versions. For the command line, a CI pipeline or another editor, the dev builds are on PyPI as development releases, such as 2.8.0.dev631; the release history of robotcode on PyPI lists the newest one.

Installing a dev version

pip and uv install a dev version when you name it. With pip:

pip install "robotcode[runner,analyze]==2.8.0.dev631"

With uv, add it to a project that uv manages, or install it into an environment with uv's pip interface:

uv add "robotcode[runner,analyze]==2.8.0.dev631"          # in a project that uv manages
uv pip install "robotcode[runner,analyze]==2.8.0.dev631"  # in an environment

The named version brings along the same dev version of the robotcode-* packages it needs. robotcode --version shows the installed version as 2.8.0-dev.631.

To get the newest dev version without looking up its number, allow pre-releases instead:

pip install --pre "robotcode[runner,analyze]"

uv add --prerelease allow "robotcode[runner,analyze]"          # in a project that uv manages
uv pip install --prerelease allow "robotcode[runner,analyze]"  # in an environment

These options allow pre-releases of every package, not only of RobotCode: as soon as Robot Framework has a release candidate that is newer than its latest release, they install that as well. uv add writes the version it found into pyproject.toml as the lower bound, such as >=2.8.0.dev631.

Going back to a release

With pip, upgrade without --pre. pip then takes the newest release, even if its version number is lower than the dev version's:

pip install --upgrade "robotcode[runner,analyze]"

With uv, name the release:

uv add "robotcode[runner,analyze]==2.7.0"          # in a project that uv manages
uv pip install "robotcode[runner,analyze]==2.7.0"  # in an environment

In a project that uv manages, putting back a version range such as >=2.7 is not enough: uv keeps the dev version from uv.lock, because it matches the range. Update RobotCode afterwards to get the newest release:

uv add "robotcode[runner,analyze]>=2.7"
uv sync --upgrade-package robotcode

Reporting problems

Report what you find in the issue tracker and name the version of the dev build: VS Code shows it on the extension's page, PyCharm under Settings | Plugins, and on the command line robotcode --version prints it.