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Skills

Skills are modular capabilities that extend OpenClaw's functionality. They provide specialized tools for specific domains.

What Are Skills

A skill is a self-contained package that includes:

  • Domain knowledge and workflows
  • Tool integrations
  • Bundled resources (scripts, references, assets)

Skills are stored in:

  • /app/skills/: Built-in skills (read-only)
  • ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/: Custom skills (user-defined)

Available Skills

github

Interact with GitHub using the gh CLI.

  • Clone repositories
  • Create issues and PRs
  • Check CI runs
  • Query repository data

weather

Get current weather and forecasts.

  • No API key required
  • Location-based queries
  • Forecast data

healthcheck

Host security hardening and system checks.

  • Security audits
  • Firewall/SSH hardening
  • Update management
  • Risk posture review

cron

Scheduled jobs and reminders.

  • Recurring tasks (daily/weekly reports)
  • One-shot reminders
  • Background agent execution

web_search / web_fetch

Internet research capabilities.

  • Brave Search API integration
  • URL content extraction
  • Markdown/text output

browser

Web automation via Chromium.

  • Page navigation and interaction
  • Screenshots
  • PDF generation

message

Cross-platform messaging.

  • Send messages to any configured channel
  • Broadcasts, reactions, polls
  • Channel management

sessions_spawn

Background agent tasks.

  • Spawn isolated sub-agents
  • Long-running operations
  • Parallel task execution

Using Skills

Automatic Invocation

The model automatically selects appropriate skills based on context. For example:

  • "Check the weather" → triggers weather skill
  • "Clone my repo" → triggers github skill
  • "Remind me tomorrow" → triggers cron skill

Manual Reference

You can explicitly request a skill:

  • "Use the github skill to list my repos"
  • "Check healthcheck for security issues"

Creating Custom Skills

Structure

skill-name/
├── SKILL.md              # Required: metadata + instructions
├── scripts/              # Optional: executable code
├── references/           # Optional: documentation
└── assets/               # Optional: templates, images

SKILL.md Format

---
name: skill-name
description: "What this skill does. Use when..."
tools: Read, Write, Exec
---

# Instructions
...

Progressive Disclosure

Skills use three loading levels:

  1. Metadata (name + description): Always in context
  2. SKILL.md body: Loaded when skill triggers
  3. References/Scripts: Loaded on demand

Keep SKILL.md under 500 lines. Move detailed docs to references/.

Skill Development

  1. Understand the use case with concrete examples
  2. Plan reusable resources (scripts, references)
  3. Initialize with proper structure
  4. Implement SKILL.md and resources
  5. Test thoroughly before use
  6. Package for distribution