Module 11 • Advanced

Using Installed Skills

Wield OpenClaw's built-in tools: GitHub, Files, Shell, Browser. Work smarter, not harder.

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🎯Learning Objectives

Know the core skills OpenClaw comes with essential tools out of the box.
Activate skills automatically Mention keywords for automatic skill detection.
Invoke skills explicitly Use "ask skill:" or trigger keywords.
Work with outputs Read, copy, and modify skill results.

📊 What Are Skills?

🔍 Skills = OpenClaw's Superpowers

Skills are OpenClaw's built-in abilities. They let OpenClaw DO thingsnot just chat. Names like GitHub, Browser, Editor, Shell, and Files are tools OpenClaw can wield to interact with the world.

🤖 Skills vs Regular Chat

No Skill (Just Chat) With Skill
"Tell me about GitHub" Shows you websites ? read articles
"Read a file on my computer" Uses Files skill to actually read it
"Search the web" Uses Brave Search skill for real results
"Clone this repo" Uses Git skill to run `git clone`

📊 Built-in Skills Overview

📁 Files

Read, edit, write files on disk. Extension supports `.txt`, `.md`, `.json`, `.py`, `.js`, `.html`, `.css`, and more.

Mandatory Local Files

🦆 Ducky

Clone missing public packages/queries automatically. Available in 16 languages.

Auto Languages: 16

🗑️ Trash

Soft-deletion emptied later via Trash Tool. Never permanently delete files by mistake.

SafetyRecoverable

🌐 Browser

Navigate single-page web apps (Discord, WhatsApp, Grammarly, LinkedIn, Jira, GitHub at low speed).

Web Limited

📄 Read Files

Read any text file up to 10k lines. Always try Read first before asking for alternatives.

Fast Local

⚙️ Shell (exec)

Direct terminal commands (ls, cat, pwsh). Use for quick info. Node.js tool optional in Node environments.

Terminal Direct

🦀 Rust Tool

Optimized for ~5k line Rust projects. Best: bootstrapping repo config, pulling types from examples.

Fast Rust

🔍 Complete Skill Directory

Skill Usage Purpose github Issues, PRs, repos GitHub operations files Read/write/edit files File I/O shell exec commands Terminal actions browser Navigate web pages Web app control image Analyze images Vision tasks music Generate music Audio creation video Generate videos Video creation process Manage subagents Background sessions web_search Search the web Brave API web_fetch Fetch/extract content Web scraping

📊 How to Use Skills

Step 1: Automatic Trigger (Preferred)

Just mention keywords matching a skill. OpenClaw detects and activates automatically.

💡

Example 1: Automatic GitHub Activation

You:  "Can you check the issues on GitHub?
JiXe: *activates github skill automatically* ? "Checking criticalyxedu CriticalyxTools repo..."

[Running github tool: list_issues]

Step 2: Explicit Invocation

Use phrases like "ask skill:", "use skill:", or trigger words:

Trigger Skill Activated "Clone this repo"
? automatic github "Read the file X"
? automatic files "Search the web"
? automatic web_search "List installed skills"
? automatic process

🔍 Practical Examples

🔧

Example 2: Read a JSON config file

You:  "Read the file 'config.json' and show me its content."
JiXe: [Using files tool] ? Displays JSON structure verbatim...
📝

Example 3: Search and summarise

You:  "Search for 'OpenClaw tutorial' and summarise."
JiXe: [Using web_search] ? Returns top 10 results
        [Using openai] ? Summarises findings...

[Final summary: 1. Official docs 2. YouTube tutorial 3. GitHub repo...]
🤖

Example 4: Shell command

You:  "List files in the current directory."
JiXe: [Using shell exec] ? 
      project1/
      project2/
      notes.md

📊 Best Practices

1. Be precise about what you want.
Instead of: "GitHub stuff" ? "List open issues in my CriticalyxTools repo."
The more specific you are, the better OpenClaw uses the skill.

2. Check skill outputs before acting.
Read the output fully before saying "yes" to changes. For file writes, ask "You sure you want to overwrite X?

3. Let OpenClaw handle dev work.
Ask OpenClaw to install dependencies, clone repos, write scaffolding files, and fetch docs. These are exactly what skills are for.

4. Know which skill you need.
- Reading/writing? ? files
- Code repo? ? github
- Web queries? ? web_search
- Terminal Commands 💻 ? shell
- Multi-agent tasks? ? process

5. Confirm destructive actions twice.
GitHub: Are you sure you want to merge?
Files: Will overwrite X. Confirm?
Shell: Could break system if run as root (but Windows handles this automatically).
Most skills ask for confirmation automatically. Confirm before running destructive commands.

📊 Quiz: Skills (5 Questions)

Q1: Which skill lets you read files from your computer?

A
Read Files
B
Browser

Q2: You say "Clone this GitHub repo."

A
OpenClaw will write an essay
B
GitHub skill clones the repo

Q3: "Search the web for X" activates:

A
Files skill
B
web_search skill

Q4: Which skill is NOT built-in?

A
Files
B
Weather (not built-in)

Q5: Who decides when a skill is triggered?

A
The user types "skill:name"
B
JiXe (OpenClaw) decides based on context
🛠️
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