Skills Compatibility¶

Community Implementation

A Rust implementation of OpenClaw by Neul Labs.

OpenClaw's skills system provides reusable agent capabilities. openclaw-rs supports the core skills format.

What Are Skills?¶

Skills are predefined capabilities that agents can use. They're like macros or shortcuts for common operations.

In OpenClaw:

{
  "skills": {
    "summarize": {
      "description": "Summarize text or files",
      "prompt_template": "Summarize the following: {{input}}"
    }
  }
}

Compatibility Status¶

Feature	Status	Notes
Basic skill definitions	✅	Full support
Prompt templates	✅	Mustache-style
Tool-based skills	✅	Single tool
Multi-step skills	⚠️	Partial
Skill chaining	⚠️	Limited
Custom skill handlers	⚠️	Via IPC bridge

Supported Skill Types¶

Prompt Skills¶

Skills that apply a prompt template:

{
  "skills": {
    "explain_code": {
      "description": "Explain code in simple terms",
      "prompt_template": "Explain this code as if to a beginner:\n\n{{code}}"
    }
  }
}

Usage:

/explain_code

def fibonacci(n):
    if n <= 1:
        return n
    return fibonacci(n-1) + fibonacci(n-2)

Tool Skills¶

Skills that execute a tool:

{
  "skills": {
    "list_files": {
      "description": "List files in a directory",
      "tool": "bash",
      "command": "ls -la {{path}}"
    }
  }
}

Composite Skills¶

Skills combining prompts and tools:

{
  "skills": {
    "analyze_file": {
      "description": "Read and analyze a file",
      "steps": [
        {
          "tool": "file_read",
          "input": { "path": "{{file}}" }
        },
        {
          "prompt": "Analyze this file content:\n\n{{step_1_result}}"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

⚠️ Multi-step skills have partial support.

Defining Skills¶

In Configuration¶

// ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json
{
  "skills": {
    "my_skill": {
      "description": "What this skill does",
      "prompt_template": "Template with {{variables}}"
    }
  }
}

In Separate Files¶

// ~/.openclaw/skills/review.json5
{
  "name": "code_review",
  "description": "Review code for issues",
  "prompt_template": "Review this code for bugs, security issues, and improvements:\n\n{{code}}"
}

Load with:

{
  "skills": {
    "code_review": {
      "file": "~/.openclaw/skills/review.json5"
    }
  }
}

Using Skills¶

Via CLI¶

# List available skills
openclaw skills list

# Show skill details
openclaw skills show code_review

Via Chat¶

In the web dashboard or API, use /skill_name:

/code_review

function add(a, b) {
  return a + b
}

Via API¶

// POST /api/chat
{
  "message": "/code_review\n\nfunction add(a, b) { return a + b }",
  "session_id": "..."
}

Template Variables¶

Skills use Mustache-style templates:

Variable	Description
`{{input}}`	User input after skill name
`{{file}}`	File path (if applicable)
`{{selection}}`	Selected text
`{{context}}`	Current context

Example¶

{
  "skills": {
    "translate": {
      "description": "Translate text to another language",
      "prompt_template": "Translate the following to {{language}}:\n\n{{text}}"
    }
  }
}

Usage:

/translate language=Spanish text=Hello, how are you?

Built-in Skills¶

openclaw-rs includes some built-in skills:

Skill	Description
`help`	Show available commands
`clear`	Clear conversation
`export`	Export conversation
`status`	Show system status

OpenClaw Skill Compatibility¶

Supported¶

Basic prompt templates
Single-tool skills
Variable substitution
Skill descriptions

Partial Support¶

Multi-step skills (basic)
Skill parameters
Conditional logic

Not Yet Supported¶

Complex skill chaining
External skill repositories
Skill versioning

Migrating Skills¶

If you have existing OpenClaw skills:

Copy skill definitions:

cp -r ~/.config/openclaw/skills ~/.openclaw/skills

Update config to reference them:

{
  "skills_dir": "~/.openclaw/skills"
}

Test each skill:
```
openclaw skills validate
```

Creating Compatible Skills¶

To create skills that work with both projects:

{
  "name": "my_skill",
  "description": "Works with OpenClaw and openclaw-rs",
  "version": "1.0.0",

  // Basic format - maximum compatibility
  "prompt_template": "Simple template: {{input}}"
}

Avoid: - Complex multi-step workflows - External dependencies - Custom handlers (use IPC bridge instead)

Next Steps¶

:material-power-plug: Plugin Compatibility :material-swap-horizontal: Migration Guide