Overview

RPA Framework is an open‑source collection of libraries and tools aimed at developers who build software robots. It works with both Robot Framework test suites and plain Python scripts, letting you choose the syntax you prefer. The project is maintained by Robocorp and is available under an open‑source licence, with source code hosted on GitHub.

The framework bundles a wide range of functional libraries, each focused on a specific automation domain. For file handling you have RPA.Archive for TAR and ZIP operations, while RPA.FileSystem lets you read, move, and delete files and directories. Web automation is covered by RPA.Browser.Selenium and the newer RPA.Browser.Playwright, which require a separate installation step because of their size. Cloud services are reachable through RPA.Cloud.AWS, RPA.Cloud.Azure, and RPA.Cloud.Google, each exposing the respective provider's API. Email processing can be done with RPA.Email.Exchange or RPA.Email.ImapSmtp, and document work is supported by RPA.PDF, RPA.Excel.Files, and RPA.Word.Application. There are also specialized libraries for OCR‑based recognition, image manipulation, database access, and interaction with enterprise systems such as SAP, Salesforce, and Microsoft 365 via RPA.MSGraph.

If you are building robots that need to run in Robocorp's Control Room, the framework includes helper libraries like RPA.Robocorp.Process, RPA.Robocorp.WorkItems, RPA.Robocorp.Vault, and RPA.Robocorp.Storage. These give you programmatic access to process orchestration, work‑item handling, secret management, and asset storage inside the Control Room environment. The documentation lists each library with a brief description and indicates whether it is included in the core package or provided as an extra, for example RPA.PDF appears in both the core and the separate PDF package.

Installation is handled through standard Python packaging tools. The default method uses a `conda.yaml` file that specifies Python 3.10, `pip`, and the `rpaframework` package version. To include all optional components, the same file can list additional dependencies such as `tesseract`, `nodejs`, and the Playwright browser driver, followed by a post‑install command `rfbrowser init`. Separate installation commands are also provided for individual extras like `rpaframework-aws`, `rpaframework-pdf`, or `rpaframework-windows`.

Key features

Over 30 libraries covering browsers, cloud services, desktop automation, and document processing
Compatible with Robot Framework syntax and native Python code
Optimized for use in Robocorp Control Room and Developer Tools
Open‑source codebase with contribution guidelines on GitHub
Installation via `conda.yaml` with optional extras for full feature set
Detailed documentation and release notes hosted on rpaframework.org

Details

Pricing: Free

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Pros and cons

Pros

Broad coverage of automation tasks reduces the need for third‑party packages
Clear separation of core and optional libraries simplifies dependency management
Official support for both Selenium and Playwright browsers
Integrated helpers for Robocorp's cloud platform simplify deployment

Cons

Some libraries (e.g., Playwright) require a special installation process and additional system dependencies
Pricing information is not published because the project is free and open source
No single‑click installer; users must configure a `conda.yaml` or pip environment themselves