Skills - OpenClaw

Skills are markdown instruction files that teach the agent how and when to use tools. Each skill lives in a directory containing a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter and a markdown body. OpenClaw loads bundled skills plus any local overrides, and filters them at load time based on environment, config, and binary presence.

Creating skills

Build and test a custom skill from scratch.

Skill Workshop

Review and approve agent-drafted skill proposals.

Skills config

Full skills.* config schema and agent allowlists.

ClawHub

Browse and install community skills.

Loading order

OpenClaw loads from these sources, highest precedence first. When the same skill name appears in multiple places, the highest source wins.

Priority	Source	Path
1 — highest	Workspace skills	`<workspace>/skills`
2	Project agent skills	`<workspace>/.agents/skills`
3	Personal agent skills	`~/.agents/skills`
4	Managed / local skills	`~/.openclaw/skills`
5	Bundled skills	shipped with the install
6 — lowest	Extra directories	`skills.load.extraDirs` + plugin skills

Skill roots support grouped layouts. OpenClaw discovers a skill whenever SKILL.md appears anywhere under a configured root (up to 6 levels deep):

<workspace>/skills/research/SKILL.md          ✓ found as "research"
<workspace>/skills/personal/research/SKILL.md ✓ also found as "research"

The folder path is for organization only. The skill’s name and slash command come from the name frontmatter field (or the directory name when name is missing). Agent allowlists (below) also match on this name.

Codex CLI’s native $CODEX_HOME/skills directory is not an OpenClaw skill root. Use openclaw migrate plan codex to inventory those skills, then openclaw migrate codex to copy them into your OpenClaw workspace.

Per-agent vs shared skills

In multi-agent setups, each agent has its own workspace. Use the path that matches your desired visibility:

Scope	Path	Visible to
Per-agent	`<workspace>/skills`	Only that agent
Project-agent	`<workspace>/.agents/skills`	Only that workspace’s agent
Personal-agent	`~/.agents/skills`	All agents on this machine
Shared managed	`~/.openclaw/skills`	All agents on this machine
Extra dirs	`skills.load.extraDirs`	All agents on this machine

Agent allowlists

Skill location (precedence) and skill visibility (which agent can use it) are separate controls. Use allowlists to restrict which skills an agent sees, regardless of where they are loaded from.

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      skills: ["github", "weather"], // shared baseline
    },
    list: [
      { id: "writer" }, // inherits github, weather
      { id: "docs", skills: ["docs-search"] }, // replaces defaults entirely
      { id: "locked-down", skills: [] }, // no skills
    ],
  },
}

Allowlist rules

Omit agents.defaults.skills to leave all skills unrestricted by default.
Omit agents.list[].skills to inherit agents.defaults.skills.
Set agents.list[].skills: [] to expose no skills for that agent.
A non-empty agents.list[].skills list is the final set — it does not merge with defaults.
The effective allowlist applies across prompt building, slash-command discovery, sandbox sync, and skill snapshots.
This is not a host shell authorization boundary. If the same agent can use exec, constrain that shell separately with sandboxing, OS-user isolation, exec deny/allowlists, and per-resource credentials.

Plugins and skills

Plugins can ship their own skills by listing skills directories in openclaw.plugin.json (paths relative to the plugin root). Plugin skills load when the plugin is enabled — for example, the browser plugin ships a browser-automation skill for multi-step browser control. Plugin skill directories merge at the same low-precedence level as skills.load.extraDirs, so a same-named bundled, managed, agent, or workspace skill overrides them. Gate a plugin skill’s own eligibility via metadata.openclaw.requires in its frontmatter, same as any other skill. See Plugins and Tools for the full plugin system.

Skill Workshop

Skill Workshop is a proposal queue between the agent and your active skill files. When the agent spots reusable work, it drafts a proposal instead of writing directly to SKILL.md. You review and approve before anything changes.

openclaw skills workshop list
openclaw skills workshop inspect <proposal-id>
openclaw skills workshop apply <proposal-id>

See Skill Workshop for the full lifecycle, CLI reference, and configuration.

Installing from ClawHub

ClawHub is the public skills registry. Use openclaw skills commands for install and update, or the clawhub CLI for publish and sync.

Action	Command
Install a skill into the workspace	`openclaw skills install @owner/<slug>`
Install from a Git repository	`openclaw skills install git:owner/repo@ref`
Install a local skill directory	`openclaw skills install ./path/to/skill --as my-tool`
Install for all local agents	`openclaw skills install @owner/<slug> --global`
Update all workspace skills	`openclaw skills update --all`
Update a shared managed skill	`openclaw skills update @owner/<slug> --global`
Update all shared managed skills	`openclaw skills update --all --global`
Verify a skill’s trust envelope	`openclaw skills verify @owner/<slug>`
Print the generated Skill Card	`openclaw skills verify @owner/<slug> --card`
Publish / sync via ClawHub CLI	`clawhub sync --all`

Install details

openclaw skills install installs into the active workspace skills/ directory by default. Add --global to install into the shared ~/.openclaw/skills directory, visible to all local agents unless agent allowlists narrow it.Git and local installs expect SKILL.md at the source root. The slug comes from SKILL.md frontmatter name when valid, then falls back to the directory or repository name. Use --as <slug> to override. openclaw skills update tracks ClawHub installs only — reinstall Git or local sources to refresh them.

Verification and security scanning

openclaw skills verify @owner/<slug> asks ClawHub for the skill’s clawhub.skill.verify.v1 trust envelope. Installed ClawHub skills verify against the version and registry recorded in .clawhub/origin.json. Bare slugs remain accepted for existing installed or unambiguous skills, but owner-qualified refs avoid publisher ambiguity.ClawHub skill pages expose the latest security scan state before install, with detail pages for VirusTotal, ClawScan, and static analysis. The command exits non-zero when ClawHub marks verification as failed. Publishers recover false positives through the ClawHub dashboard or clawhub skill rescan @owner/<slug>.

Private archive installs

Gateway clients that need non-ClawHub delivery can stage a zip skill archive with skills.upload.begin, skills.upload.chunk, and skills.upload.commit, then install with skills.install({ source: "upload", ... }). This path is off by default and requires skills.install.allowUploadedArchives: true in openclaw.json. Normal ClawHub installs never need that setting.

Security

Treat third-party skills as untrusted code. Read them before enabling. Prefer sandboxed runs for untrusted inputs and risky tools. See Sandboxing for agent-side controls.

Path containment

Workspace, project-agent, and extra-dir skill discovery only accepts skill roots whose resolved realpath stays inside the configured root, unless skills.load.allowSymlinkTargets explicitly trusts a target root. Skill Workshop writes through those trusted targets only when skills.workshop.allowSymlinkTargetWrites is enabled. Managed ~/.openclaw/skills and personal ~/.agents/skills may contain symlinked skill folders, but every SKILL.md realpath must still stay inside its resolved skill directory.

Operator install policy

Configure security.installPolicy to run a trusted local policy command before skill installs continue. The policy receives metadata and the staged source path, applies to ClawHub, uploaded, Git, local, update, and dependency-installer paths, and fails closed when the command cannot return a valid decision.

Secret injection scope

skills.entries.*.env and skills.entries.*.apiKey inject secrets into the host process for that agent turn only — not into the sandbox. Keep secrets out of prompts and logs.

For the broader threat model and security checklists, see Security.

SKILL.md format

Every skill needs at minimum a name and description in the frontmatter:

---
name: image-lab
description: Generate or edit images via a provider-backed image workflow
---

When the user asks to generate an image, use the `image_generate` tool...

OpenClaw follows the AgentSkills spec. Frontmatter is parsed as YAML first; if that fails, it falls back to a single-line-only parser. Nested metadata blocks (including multi-line YAML mappings) are flattened to a JSON string and re-parsed as JSON5, so the block form shown under Gating works. Use {baseDir} in the body to reference the skill folder path.

Optional frontmatter keys

homepage

string

URL shown as “Website” in the macOS Skills UI. Also supported via metadata.openclaw.homepage.

user-invocable

boolean

default:"true"

When true, the skill is exposed as a user-invocable slash command.

disable-model-invocation

boolean

default:"false"

When true, OpenClaw keeps the skill’s instructions out of the agent’s normal prompt. The skill is still available as a slash command when user-invocable is also true.

command-dispatch

"tool"

When set to tool, the slash command bypasses the model and dispatches directly to a registered tool.

command-tool

string

Tool name to invoke when command-dispatch: tool is set.

command-arg-mode

"raw"

default:"raw"

For tool dispatch, forwards the raw args string to the tool with no core parsing. The tool receives { command: "<raw args>", commandName: "<slash command>", skillName: "<skill name>" }.

Gating

OpenClaw filters skills at load time using metadata.openclaw (JSON5 object embedded in the frontmatter, see the parsing note above). A skill with no metadata.openclaw block is always eligible unless explicitly disabled.

---
name: image-lab
description: Generate or edit images via a provider-backed image workflow
metadata:
  {
    "openclaw":
      {
        "requires": { "bins": ["uv"], "env": ["GEMINI_API_KEY"], "config": ["browser.enabled"] },
        "primaryEnv": "GEMINI_API_KEY",
      },
  }
---

always

boolean

When true, always include the skill and skip all other gates.

emoji

string

Optional emoji shown in the macOS Skills UI.

homepage

string

Optional URL shown as “Website” in the macOS Skills UI.

("darwin" | "linux" | "win32")[]

Platform filter. When set, the skill is only eligible on a listed OS.

requires.bins

string[]

Each binary must exist on PATH.

requires.anyBins

string[]

At least one binary must exist on PATH.

requires.env

string[]

Each env var must exist in the process or be provided via config.

requires.config

string[]

Each openclaw.json path must be truthy.

primaryEnv

string

Env var name associated with skills.entries.<name>.apiKey.

install

object[]

Optional installer specs used by the macOS Skills UI (brew / node / go / uv / download).

Legacy metadata.clawdbot blocks are still accepted when metadata.openclaw is absent, so older installed skills keep their dependency gates and installer hints. New skills should use metadata.openclaw.

Installer specs

Installer specs tell the macOS Skills UI how to install a dependency:

---
name: gemini
description: Use Gemini CLI for coding assistance and Google search lookups.
metadata:
  {
    "openclaw":
      {
        "emoji": "♊️",
        "requires": { "bins": ["gemini"] },
        "install":
          [
            {
              "id": "brew",
              "kind": "brew",
              "formula": "gemini-cli",
              "bins": ["gemini"],
              "label": "Install Gemini CLI (brew)",
            },
          ],
      },
  }
---

Installer selection rules

When multiple installers are listed, the gateway picks one preferred option (brew when available, otherwise node).
If all installers are download, OpenClaw lists each entry so you can see all available artifacts.
Specs can include os: ["darwin"|"linux"|"win32"] to filter by platform.
Node installs honor skills.install.nodeManager in openclaw.json (default: npm; options: npm / pnpm / yarn / bun). This only affects skill installs; the Gateway runtime should still be Node.
Gateway installer preference: Homebrew → uv → configured node manager → go → download.

Per-installer details

Homebrew: OpenClaw does not auto-install Homebrew or translate brew formulas into system package commands. In Linux containers without brew, brew-only installers are hidden; use a custom image or install the dependency manually.
Go: OpenClaw requires Go 1.21 or newer for automatic skill installs. If go is missing and Homebrew is available, OpenClaw installs Go via Homebrew first; on Linux without Homebrew it can instead use apt-get as root or through passwordless sudo when the refreshed golang-go candidate meets the minimum version. The actual go install for the dependency always targets a dedicated OpenClaw-managed bin directory (Homebrew’s bin on a fresh install, else ~/.local/bin) rather than your configured GOBIN — your own GOBIN, GOPATH, and GOTOOLCHAIN env vars are read but never overwritten.
Download: url (required), archive (tar.gz | tar.bz2 | zip), extract (default: auto when archive detected), stripComponents, targetDir (default: ~/.openclaw/tools/<skillKey>).

Sandboxing notes

requires.bins is checked on the host at skill load time. If an agent runs in a sandbox, the binary must also exist inside the container. Install it via agents.defaults.sandbox.docker.setupCommand or a custom image. setupCommand runs once after container creation and requires network egress, a writable root FS, and a root user in the sandbox.

Config overrides

Toggle and configure bundled or managed skills under skills.entries in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json:

{
  skills: {
    entries: {
      "image-lab": {
        enabled: true,
        apiKey: { source: "env", provider: "default", id: "GEMINI_API_KEY" },
        env: { GEMINI_API_KEY: "GEMINI_KEY_HERE" },
        config: {
          endpoint: "https://example.invalid",
          model: "nano-pro",
        },
      },
      peekaboo: { enabled: true },
      sag: { enabled: false },
    },
  },
}

enabled

boolean

false disables the skill even when bundled or installed. The coding-agent bundled skill is opt-in — set skills.entries.coding-agent.enabled: true and ensure one of claude, codex, opencode, or another supported CLI is installed and authenticated.

apiKey

string | { source, provider, id }

Convenience field for skills that declare metadata.openclaw.primaryEnv. Supports a plaintext string or a SecretRef object.

env

Record<string, string>

Environment variables injected for the agent run. Only injected when the variable is not already set in the process.

config

object

Optional bag for custom per-skill configuration fields.

allowBundled

string[]

Optional allowlist for bundled skills only. When set, only bundled skills in the list are eligible. Managed and workspace skills are unaffected.

Config keys match the skill name by default. If a skill defines metadata.openclaw.skillKey, use that key under skills.entries instead. Quote hyphenated names: JSON5 allows quoted keys.

Environment injection

When an agent run starts, OpenClaw:

Reads skill metadata

OpenClaw resolves the effective skill list for the agent, applying gating rules, allowlists, and config overrides.

Injects env and API keys

skills.entries.<key>.env and skills.entries.<key>.apiKey are applied to process.env for the duration of the run.

Builds the system prompt

Eligible skills are compiled into a compact XML block and injected into the system prompt.

Restores the environment

After the run ends, the original environment is restored.

Env injection is scoped to the host agent run, not the sandbox. Inside a sandbox, env and apiKey have no effect. See Skills config for how to pass secrets into sandboxed runs.

For the bundled claude-cli backend, OpenClaw also materializes the same eligible skill snapshot as a temporary Claude Code plugin and passes it via --plugin-dir. Other CLI backends use the prompt catalog only.

Snapshots and refresh

OpenClaw snapshots eligible skills when a session starts and reuses that list for all subsequent turns in the session. Changes to skills or config take effect on the next new session. Skills refresh mid-session in two cases:

The skills watcher detects a SKILL.md change.
A new eligible remote node connects.

The refreshed list is picked up on the next agent turn. If the effective agent allowlist changes, OpenClaw refreshes the snapshot to keep visible skills aligned.

Skills watcher

By default, OpenClaw watches skill folders and bumps the snapshot when SKILL.md files change. Configure under skills.load:

{
  skills: {
    load: {
      extraDirs: ["~/Projects/agent-scripts/skills"],
      allowSymlinkTargets: ["~/Projects/manager/skills"],
      watch: true, // default
      watchDebounceMs: 250, // default
    },
  },
}

Use allowSymlinkTargets for intentional symlinked layouts where a skill root symlink points outside the configured root, for example <workspace>/skills/manager -> ~/Projects/manager/skills. Enable skills.workshop.allowSymlinkTargetWrites only when Skill Workshop should also apply proposals through those trusted symlinked paths.

Remote macOS nodes (Linux gateway)

If the Gateway runs on Linux but a macOS node is connected with system.run allowed, OpenClaw can treat macOS-only skills as eligible when the required binaries are present on that node. The agent should run those skills via the exec tool with host=node.Offline nodes do not make remote-only skills visible. If a node stops answering bin probes, OpenClaw clears its cached bin matches.

Token impact

When skills are eligible, OpenClaw injects a compact XML block into the system prompt. The cost is deterministic and scales linearly per skill:

Base overhead (only when 1+ skills are eligible): a fixed block of intro prose plus the <available_skills> wrapper.
Per skill: ~97 characters + your name, description, and location field lengths.
XML escaping expands & < > " ' into entities, adding a few characters per occurrence.
At ~4 chars/token, 97 chars ≈ 24 tokens per skill before field lengths.

If the rendered block would exceed the configured prompt budget (skills.limits.maxSkillsPromptChars), OpenClaw first drops descriptions (compact format: name + location only), then truncates the skill list and adds a note pointing at openclaw skills check. Keep descriptions short and descriptive to minimize prompt overhead.

Creating skills

Step-by-step guide to authoring a custom skill.

Skill Workshop

Proposal queue for agent-drafted skills.

Skills config

Full skills.* config schema and agent allowlists.

Slash commands

How skill slash commands are registered and routed.

ClawHub

Browse and publish skills on the public registry.

Plugins

Plugins can ship skills alongside the tools they document.

Creating skills

Skill Workshop

Skills config

ClawHub

​Loading order

​Per-agent vs shared skills

​Agent allowlists

​Plugins and skills

​Skill Workshop

​Installing from ClawHub

​Security

​SKILL.md format

​Optional frontmatter keys

​Gating

​Installer specs

​Config overrides

​Environment injection

​Snapshots and refresh

​Token impact

​Related

Creating skills

Skill Workshop

Skills config

Slash commands

ClawHub

Plugins

Loading order

Per-agent vs shared skills

Agent allowlists

Plugins and skills

Skill Workshop

Installing from ClawHub

Security

SKILL.md format

Optional frontmatter keys

Gating

Installer specs

Config overrides

Environment injection

Snapshots and refresh

Token impact

Related