robo-appian

robo-appian (robo appian / robo_appian) by Dinil Mithra makes Appian pages easier to automate with readable Python. It is a Python automation and testing library for Appian applications.

It is designed for people who know their web application and only need basic Python to start writing automation.

Quick example

from robo_appian import AppianPage


def test_update_item(page: AppianPage) -> None:
    page.textbox(label="Description").fill("Example item")
    page.date(label="Start Date").fill("10/15/2026")
    page.radio(label="Priority").select("High")
    page.button(name="Submit").click()

The goal is to describe the page using the same text a user sees.

Install

pip install robo-appian
robo-appian install-browser firefox

Python 3.12 is required. robo-appian uses robo-automation for generic browser and pytest infrastructure.

Common controls

page.textbox(label="Description").fill("Example item")
page.textbox(placeholder="example@example.com").fill("user@example.com")
page.textbox("Employee").select(search_text="John", value="John Smith")
page.date(label="Start Date").fill("10/15/2026")
page.radio(label="Priority").select("High")
page.button(name="Next").click()

Textboxes, dates, and selection components automatically move focus out after a value changes so Appian can process it.

What belongs where?

Your application tests
        ↓
robo-appian       Appian controls and Appian behavior
        ↓
robo-automation   Browser and pytest infrastructure
        ↓
Playwright

Your application project should own application URLs, login policy, business workflows, assertions, and test data.

Documentation

Start with the beginner guides:

• Installation
• Quick Start
• Your First Test
• Choosing a Component
• Troubleshooting

Advanced architecture and pytest integration are documented separately for framework maintainers.

Full documentation:

https://dinilmithra.github.io/robo-appian/

License

robo-appian is licensed under the MIT License.

Error handling

Appian-specific library failures use RoboAppianError, which is also a RoboAutomationError. Normal tests should usually let pytest report these errors. If you need recovery or diagnostic handling, see How to use RoboAppianError for examples using code, details, to_dict(), and exception chaining.

Runtime boundary for application projects

Application projects should normally import automation APIs only from robo_appian.

from robo_appian import AppianPage, AppianRuntime, RoboAppianError

AppianRuntime provides the Appian-facing browser/session lifecycle used by advanced consumer fixtures. It intentionally hides lower browser and performance implementation classes. Normal test authors usually only need the page fixture and component APIs shown above.

Semantic browser recorder

The library now includes robo_appian.recorder: live semantic inspection, recording normalization, explicit step review and deterministic pytest generation. Use the sibling robo-recorder project's README for installation, the local demo, supported mappings and live-browser validation steps. Recorder mechanics stay in this library; generated tests do not depend on CORE testcase patterns.

Recorder commands

The recorder CLI and demo are owned by this library; no robo-recorder package is required to capture, review or generate tests.

robo-appian recorder record --url "https://your-appian-host/suite/sites/your-site" --output .\recordings\request
robo-appian recorder review .\recordings\request\recording.json
robo-appian recorder validate .\recordings\request\recording.json
robo-appian recorder generate .\recordings\request\recording.json --output .\tests\generated\test_request.py

Use python -m robo_appian.cli recorder --help if the console command is not on PATH. robo-appian recorder demo opens the library-bundled local example. Playback still requires consumer fixtures and application Login/Logout hooks; see the sibling robo-recorder project for an example. Existing browser-install commands remain available. The old robo-recorder CLI forwards to these same library functions.