openclaw
    skills
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    OpenClaw Skills Directory Path

    Where OpenClaw stores skills, how to share them with Claude Code, and how to verify a skill loaded.

    April 22, 2026
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    Quick Answer: OpenClaw stores skills at ~/.openclaw/skills/ for personal skills and .openclaw/skills/ for project-scoped skills. The directory layout and SKILL.md format are identical to Claude Code, so the same skill folder works in both agents without modification.

    OpenClaw is the open-source AI coding agent that reads the same SKILL.md format as Claude Code. If you've already got a Claude skills library, you can use every skill in OpenClaw by symlinking or copying the directory.

    Default OpenClaw skills paths

    ScopePath
    Personal (all projects)~/.openclaw/skills/
    Project-scoped.openclaw/skills/ (inside the repo)

    On macOS the personal path expands to /Users/you/.openclaw/skills/. On Linux it's /home/you/.openclaw/skills/. On Windows it's C:\Users\you\.openclaw\skills\.

    Sharing skills between Claude Code and OpenClaw

    Three options, in order of preference:

    1. Symlink (recommended — one source of truth):

    ln -s ~/.claude/skills ~/.openclaw/skills
    

    2. Copy individual skills (if you want different sets):

    cp -r ~/.claude/skills/code-reviewer ~/.openclaw/skills/
    

    3. Install fresh from Agensi: every Agensi skill works in OpenClaw — just unzip into ~/.openclaw/skills/.

    Folder structure

    ~/.openclaw/skills/
    └── code-reviewer/
        ├── SKILL.md
        ├── scripts/
        │   └── check.sh
        └── references/
            └── style-guide.md
    

    Same as Claude Code. Every skill is a folder with SKILL.md at the root.

    Verify OpenClaw loaded the skill

    openclaw skills list
    

    Or inside an OpenClaw session, ask "what skills do you have access to?" — the agent enumerates them.

    Common mistakes

    • Using .claude/skills/ for OpenClaw — won't be discovered, OpenClaw only scans its own paths
    • Mixed-case folder names — stick to lowercase-with-hyphens for portability
    • Forgetting that symlinks need to be absolute paths on some filesystems

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