Implementation:Openclaw Openclaw LoadSkillEntries

loadSkillEntries and shouldIncludeSkill

loadSkillEntries discovers and loads all skill entries from multiple directories in precedence order, parsing frontmatter and resolving metadata. shouldIncludeSkill evaluates eligibility criteria for each skill entry based on the runtime environment, configuration, and skill metadata.

Principle:Openclaw_Openclaw_Skill_Loading

Source Location

Function	File	Lines
loadSkillEntries	src/agents/skills/workspace.ts	99-189
shouldIncludeSkill	src/agents/skills/config.ts	114-191

Repository: github.com/openclaw/openclaw

loadSkillEntries

Signature

function loadSkillEntries(
  workspaceDir: string,
  opts?: {
    config?: OpenClawConfig;
    managedSkillsDir?: string;
    bundledSkillsDir?: string;
  },
): SkillEntry[]

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
workspaceDir	string	(required)	The workspace root directory. Skills are loaded from <workspaceDir>/skills/.
opts.config	OpenClawConfig?	undefined	The full OpenClaw config, used to resolve skills.load.extraDirs and plugin skill dirs.
opts.managedSkillsDir	string?	~/.openclaw/skills	Override for the managed skills directory.
opts.bundledSkillsDir	string?	auto-resolved	Override for the bundled skills directory.

Return Value

Returns SkillEntry[], where each entry contains:

export type SkillEntry = {
  skill: Skill;
  frontmatter: ParsedSkillFrontmatter;
  metadata?: OpenClawSkillMetadata;
  invocation?: SkillInvocationPolicy;
};

Behavior

The function loads skills from four source categories and merges them by name:

1. Resolve directories. Computes the paths for managed, workspace, bundled, extra, and plugin skill directories.
2. Load from each source. Calls loadSkillsFromDir() (from @mariozechner/pi-coding-agent) for each directory, normalizing the result into a Skill[] array.
3. Merge by precedence. Uses a Map<string, Skill> to merge skills. The insertion order determines precedence (later entries override earlier ones):
   • Extra skills + plugin skills (lowest)
   • Bundled skills
   • Managed skills
   • Workspace skills (highest)
4. Parse frontmatter. For each merged skill, reads the SKILL.md file, parses YAML frontmatter via parseFrontmatter(), and resolves OpenClaw-specific metadata via resolveOpenClawMetadata().
5. Resolve invocation policy. Determines userInvocable and disableModelInvocation from frontmatter keys.

Precedence Diagram

extra/plugin dirs  -->  bundled  -->  managed  -->  workspace
   (lowest)                                        (highest)

When the same skill name appears in multiple sources,
the highest-precedence source wins.

shouldIncludeSkill

Signature

export function shouldIncludeSkill(params: {
  entry: SkillEntry;
  config?: OpenClawConfig;
  eligibility?: SkillEligibilityContext;
}): boolean

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
entry	SkillEntry	The skill entry to evaluate.
config	OpenClawConfig?	The full OpenClaw configuration for resolving per-skill entries and config paths.
eligibility	SkillEligibilityContext?	Optional remote environment context for cross-platform eligibility.

Return Value

Returns boolean: true if the skill should be included, false if it should be filtered out.

Evaluation Cascade

The function applies checks in this specific order:

Step	Check	Result if Failed
1	skillConfig.enabled === false	Exclude (explicit disable)
2	Bundled skill not in allowBundled list	Exclude
3	OS list non-empty and runtime platform not in list (also checks remote platforms)	Exclude
4	metadata.always === true	Include (skip remaining checks)
5	requires.bins: all listed binaries must be in PATH or available remotely	Exclude if any missing
6	requires.anyBins: at least one listed binary must be available	Exclude if none found
7	requires.env: all listed env vars must be set in process env, skill config env, or via apiKey+primaryEnv	Exclude if any missing
8	requires.config: all listed config paths must be truthy	Exclude if any falsy
9	All checks passed	Include

Environment Variable Resolution

For requires.env, the function checks three sources for each variable:

1. process.env[envName] -- the actual environment variable.
2. skillConfig.env[envName] -- the per-skill config override.
3. skillConfig.apiKey when metadata.primaryEnv === envName -- the skill's API key satisfies its primary env requirement.

Supporting Functions

resolveSkillConfig

export function resolveSkillConfig(
  config: OpenClawConfig | undefined,
  skillKey: string,
): SkillConfig | undefined

Looks up the per-skill configuration from config.skills.entries[skillKey]. Returns undefined if the config, entries map, or specific entry is missing.

resolveConfigPath / isConfigPathTruthy

export function resolveConfigPath(config: OpenClawConfig | undefined, pathStr: string): unknown
export function isConfigPathTruthy(config: OpenClawConfig | undefined, pathStr: string): boolean

Walks the config object using dot-separated path segments (e.g., "browser.enabled"). isConfigPathTruthy() also consults a default values map for known config paths.

hasBinary

export function hasBinary(bin: string): boolean

Scans PATH directories to check if a binary exists and is executable.

Public Export

loadSkillEntries is not directly exported but is exposed through the public wrapper:

export function loadWorkspaceSkillEntries(
  workspaceDir: string,
  opts?: {
    config?: OpenClawConfig;
    managedSkillsDir?: string;
    bundledSkillsDir?: string;
  },
): SkillEntry[] {
  return loadSkillEntries(workspaceDir, opts);
}