[BUG] robotcode doesnt recognize user global robot.toml file

[MarvKler]

Describe the bug
We have placed the .robot.toml within our local user home directory (~/.robot.toml) but robotcode does not recognize this file at all which leads to missing variables in our test execution.

But somehow robotcode is unexpectedly recognizing and using a .robot.toml which is located under '/Users//Library/Application Support/robotcode/robot.toml'.

Within the .robot.toml file we are defining env variables via [extend-env] section.

Steps To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Place .robot.tomlwithin home dir (~/.robot.toml)
2. Define some env variables via [extend-env] section
3. execute test via VS Code

If possible add some example source code like:

Expected behavior
RobotCode is using the configuration file at ~/.robot.toml and extends the env variables during the test execution.

Screenshots/ Videos

Logs
I have observed the following log output from robotcode:

Use root at:
    /Users/<my-user-dir>/development/gitrepos/<our-project> (.git directory)
Using config file: test/robot.toml

Found user configuration file:
    /Users/<my-user-dir>/Library/Application Support/robotcode/robot.toml

Load configuration from /Users/<my-user-dir>/Library/Application Support/robotcode/robot.toml

Load configuration from  test/robot.toml

Additional context
We are using an additional project specific configuration file within our git repo located in test/robot.toml - we would expect that robotcode is considering both config files and combines both content

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• VS Code Version 1.127.0
• RobotCode Version 2.5.1 and 2.7.0
• OS: MacOS
• Python Version 3.12.13
• RobotFramework Version RF-7.4.2

[MarvKler]

According to the documentation it should be possible to use the ~/.robot.toml

[d-biehl]

Hi Marvin! Good to see you here.

Thanks for the detailed report — this turned out to be a documentation bug, not a bug in RobotCode itself. Looks like we documented the wrong path (or forgot to update it). RobotCode is behaving correctly here; the docs were just misleading.

The global user config is not at ~/.robot.toml. It lives in the platform-specific user configuration directory as a robot.toml file:

• Linux: ~/.config/robotcode/robot.toml (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/robotcode/robot.toml)
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/robotcode/robot.toml
• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\robotcode\robot.toml

So the file your logs show being loaded — /Users/<you>/Library/Application Support/robotcode/robot.toml — is the correct global user config location on macOS. The reason we use these locations instead of a ~/.robot.toml dotfile is that each OS has an established standard place for application settings; a dotfile in $HOME is only idiomatic on Unix.

I've already corrected the documentation. Sorry for the confusion the old wording caused — thanks for taking the time to dig into the logs and pin it down!

[MarvKler]

Thanks for the fast clarification & for updating the docs! :)