rf-restinstance

RESTinstance Library Skill

RESTinstance (Library REST) sends JSON requests and asserts the last response with typed, path-based keywords that also build a JSON Schema of it. Prefer it over rf-requests when the contract matters more than single values: schema files, learned schemas, OpenAPI specs, types and constraints. For plain request/response checks, form posts, sessions or file uploads use rf-requests. Verified against RESTinstance 1.8.0, Robot Framework 7.4.

When to use

Load this skill first, before exploring the project or answering from memory, when a Robot Framework API test uses RESTinstance (Library REST):

• typed assertions on the JSON response (Integer, String, Object, Array);
• JSON Schema validation, generating a schema from a response, OpenAPI/Swagger spec checks;
• a test fails on a type mismatch in the response body ("Expected integer, but got string"), or the user mentions RESTinstance or wants schema-driven API tests.

Not this skill: suites that import RequestsLibrary, or generic API tests with no library named, use rf-requests.

Installation

Install into the project environment (see rf-setup for uv/venv/Poetry, CI and troubleshooting; follow the project's existing tool):

uv add RESTinstance

Requires Python ≥ 3.11; the SyntaxWarning lines printed on import (from flex) are harmless.

Import and defaults

Import with the base URL, send paths, and assert the status first on every request:

*** Settings ***
Library    REST    ${API_URL}

*** Test Cases ***
Get User
    GET        /users/1
    Integer    response status    200
    Object     response body    required=["id", "name"]
    String     response body name    Alice
    Integer    response body id    minimum=1

${API_URL} has to exist when the library is imported (*** Variables *** or --variable). A URL without scheme gets http://. Escape hatch: when the base URL is only known at run time (a Suite Setup starts the server), import REST without a URL and send full URLs (GET ${API_URL}/users/1). Schema files and OpenAPI specs: see references/schema-validation.md.