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[ENHANCEMENT] robotcode CLI: .set cannot create a variable; clarify the help text or allow it #670
Description
Is your enhancement request related to a problem? Please describe.
.help set says: "Set a scalar variable in the selected frame … The assignment lands in the selected frame's local scope." That reads like a normal assignment. For a variable that does not exist yet, .set fails with Variable '${x}' not found., which looks like a lookup bug rather than a rule.
# t.robot: a test that assigns ${value} on line 3, then fails on line 4
printf '.set ${fresh} hello\n.set ${value} 7\n.c\n' \
| robotcode robot-debug --plain --no-history --break t.robot:4 t.robot(rdb) ! Variable '${fresh}' not found.
(rdb) ${value} = '7'
Describe the solution you'd like
Either:
- allow
.setto create a new local scalar, or - keep the rule but say so in
.help setand in the error:.set only changes existing variables; use ${x}= Set Variable … to create one.
Describe alternatives you've considered
The workaround ${fresh}= Set Variable hello at the prompt works fine. This is about discoverability.
Additional context
The behaviour is intentional in the controller (set_variable L321-L335, "Raises NameError if the variable is unknown"), but the user-facing help (L1637-L1645) does not mention it.
Environment
- Scope: robotcode CLI only (no VS Code / IntelliJ involved)
- RobotCode version: 2.7.0 (PyPI
robotcode[all]); also reproduced onmain@20c1767 - OS: Linux (Ubuntu, kernel 6.8, x86_64)
- Python version: 3.13.11
- Robot Framework version: 7.5
AI / tooling disclosure
This report was prepared with assistance from Claude Code (Anthropic) during a series of hands-on robotcode CLI experiments. I reviewed the text, re-ran the steps above locally on both v2.7.0 and main @ 20c1767, and confirm the behaviour described.
Activity
d-biehl commentedon Oct 9, 2026
Thanks for the report.
.setstays as it is: like the Variables view of the VS Code debugger, it only changes variables that already exist, and the error message is unchanged..help setand the command-line debugging guide now say that, and show how to create a variable at the prompt instead (${x}= Set Variable …). The help also no longer suggests${{ … }}for Python values, because.setalways stores the value as a string; for other types, assign at the prompt, e.g.${items}= Evaluate [1, 2]. The robotcode agent skill got the same correction.While looking into this, we found that setting variables in either debugger doesn't work the way the Variables view suggests, both for scopes and for value types. That's collected in #671.
docs(repl): correct the description of .set