Skill Dependencies

Manage dependencies between OpenClaw skills — like npm for skills.

Version Constraints

Supports semver-style version constraints:

depends:
  - weather@>=1.0.0      # Version 1.0.0 or higher
  - calendar@^2.0.0      # Compatible with 2.x.x
  - browser@~1.2.0       # Approximately 1.2.x
  - coding-agent@*       # Any version
  - github@1.5.0         # Exact version

Conflict Detection

Declare skills that cannot coexist:

conflicts:
  - old-weather          # Cannot use with old-weather
  - legacy-calendar

Concepts

Declaring Dependencies

In a skill's SKILL.md frontmatter:

---
name: my-skill
description: Does something cool
depends:
  - weather          # Requires weather skill
  - coding-agent     # Requires coding-agent skill
optional:
  - github           # Enhanced if github skill present
---

Dependency Types

• depends — Required skills (fail if missing)
• optional — Enhanced functionality if present
• conflicts — Cannot be used with these skills

Commands

Scan Skills

# Scan all installed skills for dependencies
./scripts/scan-skills.sh

# Scan specific skill
./scripts/scan-skills.sh weather

Dependency Tree

# Show full dependency tree
./scripts/skill-tree.sh my-skill

# Output:
# my-skill
# ├── weather (required)
# │   └── (no dependencies)
# └── coding-agent (required)
#     └── github (optional)

Check Missing

# Find skills with unmet dependencies
./scripts/check-deps.sh

Registry Format

Skills can declare their metadata in skill.json:

{
  "name": "my-skill",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "depends": {
    "weather": ">=1.0.0",
    "coding-agent": "*"
  },
  "optional": {
    "github": ">=2.0.0"
  }
}

Skill Locations

Scans these directories:

1. /usr/lib/node_modules/openclaw/skills/ — Built-in skills
2. ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/ — User skills
3. ./skills/ — Project-local skills

ClawHub Registry Integration

Install skills from clawhub.com:

# Install a skill (auto-resolves dependencies)
./scripts/skill-install.sh weather

# Install with specific version
./scripts/skill-install.sh weather@1.2.0

# Search for skills
./scripts/skill-search.sh "calendar"

# List installed vs available
./scripts/skill-list.sh --outdated

Auto-Resolution

When installing a skill with dependencies:

$ ./scripts/skill-install.sh travel-planner

📦 Resolving dependencies for travel-planner@1.0.0...
  ├── weather@>=1.0.0 → weather@1.2.3 ✅
  ├── calendar@^2.0 → calendar@2.1.0 ✅
  └── browser (optional) → browser@3.0.0 ✅

🔍 Checking conflicts...
  └── No conflicts found ✅

📥 Installing 4 skills...
  ✅ weather@1.2.3
  ✅ calendar@2.1.0
  ✅ browser@3.0.0
  ✅ travel-planner@1.0.0

Done! Installed 4 skills.

Commands Summary

| Command | Description |

|---------|-------------|

| scan-skills.sh | List all skills with their deps |

| skill-tree.sh | Show dependency tree |

| check-deps.sh | Find missing dependencies |

| skill-install.sh | Install from ClawHub |

| skill-search.sh | Search registry |

| check-conflicts.sh | Detect conflicts |