[BUG] [ ERROR ] Suite 'folder1' contains no tests or tasks. #656

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1. emilezwiggelaar

   added

   bugSomething isn't workingSomething isn't working

   on Sep 29, 2026
2. emilezwiggelaar commented on Sep 29, 2026

   

   emilezwiggelaar

   on Sep 29, 2026

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   robotcode_issue.zip
3. d-biehl commented on Oct 6, 2026

   

   d-biehl

   on Oct 6, 2026

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   Hi Emile,

   thanks for the sample project, that made it easy to reproduce.

   This is a Robot Framework problem. For runs from VS Code, RobotCode passes --parseinclude with the files of the selected tests. That way Robot Framework parses only the files it needs instead of the whole project. This is faster, especially in larger projects, and keeps errors in unrelated files out of the run. With several paths, though, Robot Framework checks each path for tests, and folder1 counts as empty because none of its files were parsed. Plain robot gives the same error in your sample project:

   robot --parseinclude folder2/testcases/my_amazing_suite.robot folder1 folder2
   

   Up to Robot Framework 6.0, --suite also kept non-matching files from being parsed, and in that case Robot Framework skipped this check. Robot Framework 6.1 stopped --suite from doing that because of the new Name setting, and added --parseinclude to explicitly select which files are parsed. The check isn't skipped for --parseinclude, so 6.1 up to 7.5 are affected. In RobotCode it came back with 2.7.0, because 2.6.0 to 2.6.2 accidentally didn't pass --parseinclude (#624). #348 and #646 are the same problem.

   Workaround: add run-empty-suite = true to your robot.toml. The name = … line from #348 is no longer needed. The setting also applies on the command line: a run whose filters match no tests then ends without an error.

   Robot Framework issue: there's none for this yet. robotframework/robotframework#4289, which I mentioned in #348 and #646, is about the name of the top-level suite. If you like, you could open one. The robot command above shows the problem without RobotCode, and these details might help:

   Details for a Robot Framework issue

   • Affected: Robot Framework 6.1 to 7.5 and current master.
   • With several data sources, TestSuiteBuilder.build() checks each top-level suite for tests unless --runemptysuite is used.
   • Up to 6.0, --suite also limited parsing, and the check was skipped in that case: if not self.included_suites and not self.allow_empty_suite:
   • 6.1 stopped --suite from limiting parsing (Do not exclude files during parsing if using --suite option robotframework/robotframework#4688) and added --parseinclude (Add explicit command line option to limit which files are parsed robotframework/robotframework#4687). The condition became if not self.allow_empty_suite:, so the check isn't skipped when --parseinclude limits parsing.
   • A possible fix: with --parseinclude, check only the whole suite instead of each data source, so a run without any tests still fails.

   If you open one, please link it here.
4. d-biehl

   added 2 commits that reference this issue on Oct 9, 2026

   docs(openspec): drop the --runemptysuite workaround from the intellij…

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   e6c601f

   feat(intellij): parse only the selected files when running a single t…

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   b133468