Your first project

Robot Studio is project-first. Environments, packages, runs, and Git all scope to the active project.

Create a new project

1. On the welcome screen, choose New Project. On Windows, the in-window File / Edit menu bar appears after a project is open.
2. Pick a folder location and name.
3. Robot Studio seeds empty tests/, resources/, and variables/ folders plus a sensible .gitignore.
4. Studio metadata lives in .robotstudio/ inside the project (ignored by the seeded gitignore).

You do not pick a “template type” — every new project is a plain Robot Framework folder ready to fill in.

Open an existing project

1. Choose Open Project.
2. Select a folder that looks like a Robot project — for example it contains .robot / .resource files, or markers such as requirements.txt, pyproject.toml, robot.yaml, or an existing Studio manifest.
3. Robot Studio will use that folder in place and create .robotstudio/ as needed.

If the folder does not look like a Robot project, Robot Studio warns and offers Continue anyways. Choosing that opens the folder anyway (force). Prefer New Project when you want the seeded tests/ / resources/ / variables/ layout.

Recent Projects on the welcome screen is the fastest way back to work you already opened. With a project open, the folder chip next to Env in the toolbar also lists recents, Open Project, and Reveal in Finder (Windows: Reveal in Explorer) so you can open the project folder in the OS file manager.

Until you open a file, the center view is the editor start page (Start and Recent) — quick actions such as Open File…, Show Explorer, and Environments. Details: Write and edit tests.

Workspaces

Workspaces are an advanced multi-project container (Open / New / Recent). Most people can ignore them at first and work with a single project. Import Project only appears in a multi-project workspace — it attaches another existing folder to that workspace. Day to day, use Open Project instead.

Set up an environment

Tests run inside a Python environment that has Robot Framework (and your libraries) installed.

1. Open Manage Environments… from the toolbar or project flow.
2. Create, import, or clone an environment, then activate it.
3. Studio-managed venvs live under .robotstudio/environments/. Existing .venv / venv / env folders are also discovered.

If you open a project without an active environment, Robot Studio prompts you after it finishes loading environments — you can continue editing, but runs need an environment. Choosing Create Environment from that prompt builds a default venv in the background; the bottom status bar shows progress, then a short “ready” notice when it finishes. The prompt is not shown when the project already has an environment (for example a restored default).

Install packages (optional)

From the Packages activity-bar rail you can:

• See what is already installed
• Search PyPI
• Install, update, or uninstall libraries into the active environment

Next step

→ Run your first tests