Skills (macOS)

The macOS app surfaces OpenClaw skills via the gateway; it does not parse skills locally.

Data source

skills.status (gateway) returns all skills plus eligibility and missing requirements (including allowlist blocks for bundled skills).
Requirements are derived from metadata.openclaw.requires in each SKILL.md.

metadata.openclaw.install defines install options (brew/node/go/uv).
The app calls skills.install to run installers on the gateway host.
Built-in dangerous-code critical findings block skills.install by default; suspicious findings still warn only. The dangerous override exists on the gateway request, but the default app flow stays fail-closed.
If every install option is download, the gateway surfaces all download choices.
Otherwise, the gateway picks one preferred installer using the current install preferences and host binaries: Homebrew first when skills.install.preferBrew is enabled and brew exists, then uv, then the configured node manager from skills.install.nodeManager, then later fallbacks like go or download.
Node install labels reflect the configured node manager, including yarn.

The app stores keys in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json under skills.entries.<skillKey>.
skills.update patches enabled, apiKey, and env.