How Skills Work
Skills live in SKILL.md files that Phaedrus reads on demand when a task matches. They’re not code — they’re structured procedures that teach Phaedrus how to do something specific.
Three layers, in priority order:
- Workspace skills (
skills/<name>/SKILL.md) — co-created with John, specific to this setup - Plugin skills (
~/.openclaw/plugin-skills/) — community contributions via ClawHub - System skills (
/opt/homebrew/.../openclaw/skills/) — built into OpenClaw core
When multiple skills could apply, the most specific one wins.
Workspace Skills
Co-created with John. These are the residue of actual work — patterns that repeated until they became procedures.
Business & Finance
| Skill | Description |
|---|
| ifm-analyst | Analyze Integrated Financial Models — structure audit, red flags, and full findings reports |
| ifm-error-checker-fixer | Diagnose and fix IFM Error Checker imbalances by finding unmapped accounts |
| fpa-master | Financial planning & analysis workflows |
| qbo-bookkeeping-associate | QuickBooks Online bookkeeping — categorize, reconcile, post transactions, pull reports |
| qbo-login | Authenticate QBO sessions, handle login + 2FA + company selection |
| reconnect-bank-feed | Detect and reconnect stale bank feeds in QBO |
| clean-named-ranges | Find and delete broken named ranges (#REF errors) in Google Sheets |
Communication & People
| Skill | Description |
|---|
| gmail-triage | Triage Gmail inboxes — classify, archive, flag, and summarize email |
| inner-circle | Manage John’s inner circle relationships |
| networking | Personal relationship intelligence and network mapping with AI-powered contact research |
| internal-comms | Write internal communications — status reports, updates, newsletters, FAQs |
Content & Publishing
| Skill | Description |
|---|
| pqb-site | Manage phaedrusqualitybookkeeping.com — posts, pages, deploys |
| zdanowski-com-website | Manage zdanowski.com — John’s personal site |
| brand-guidelines | Apply BrightZen Capital brand colors, typography, and visual identity |
| thought-partner | Build structured profiles of thinkers whose ideas shaped how we think |
| doc-coauthoring | Structured co-authoring workflow for documentation and proposals |
| google-docs | Read, write, and edit Google Docs — formatting, links, comments |
| Skill | Description |
|---|
| docx | Create, read, edit, and manipulate Word documents |
| xlsx | Create, read, edit spreadsheet files (.xlsx, .csv, .tsv) |
| pptx | Create, read, edit PowerPoint presentations |
| pdf | Read, merge, split, rotate, watermark, OCR, and create PDFs |
Smart Home & Hardware
| Skill | Description |
|---|
| kasa | Control TP-Link Kasa smart plugs, switches, and bulbs locally |
Browser & Automation
| Skill | Description |
|---|
| playwright-mcp | Browser automation via Playwright — navigate, click, fill forms, screenshot |
| vercel-login | Authenticate Vercel sessions via browser automation |
| Skill | Description |
|---|
| phaedrus-support | Expert guidance on installing, configuring, and troubleshooting OpenClaw |
| yt | Quick presence check — “you there?” responses |
| sidebar | Sidebar conversations and context |
Plugin Skills
Installed from ClawHub or custom-built. These extend Phaedrus with community-maintained capabilities.
| Skill | Description |
|---|
| imsg | iMessage/SMS — DMs, groups, replies, reactions, polls, watching |
| slack | Slack — send/read/edit/delete messages, react, pin, member info |
| obsidian-vault-maintainer | Maintain Obsidian-friendly memory wiki with wikilinks and frontmatter |
| wiki-maintainer | Maintain the OpenClaw memory wiki with deterministic pages and managed blocks |
System Skills (OpenClaw Core)
Built into OpenClaw. Available to all agents on any installation.
Productivity & Knowledge
| Skill | Description |
|---|
| notion | Notion CLI/API — pages, databases, files, comments, search |
| obsidian | Work with Obsidian vaults via official CLI |
| apple-notes | Create, view, edit, search Apple Notes via memo CLI |
| apple-reminders | Manage Apple Reminders and lists via remindctl |
| things-mac | Things 3 todos, inbox, today, projects, areas, and tags |
| trello | Manage Trello boards, lists, and cards |
| summarize | Summarize URLs, YouTube, podcasts, articles, transcripts, PDFs |
| blogwatcher | Monitor blogs and RSS/Atom feeds for updates |
Communication
| Skill | Description |
|---|
| gog | Google Workspace CLI — Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Contacts, Sheets, Docs |
| himalaya | IMAP/SMTP mail — list, read, search, compose, reply, forward |
| xurl | X/Twitter — posts, replies, DMs, media, search |
Development & Debugging
| Skill | Description |
|---|
| github | GitHub CLI — issues, PRs, CI logs, comments, reviews, releases |
| gh-issues | Fetch issues, spawn fix agents, open PRs |
| coding-agent | Delegate coding to Codex, Claude Code, or OpenCode |
| spike | Throwaway prototypes to validate feasibility |
| node-inspect-debugger | Debug Node.js with breakpoints, CDP, heap/CPU profiles |
| python-debugpy | Debug Python with pdb, breakpoint(), debugpy |
| session-logs | Search and analyze session logs with jq |
| model-usage | Summarize cost logs by model |
Infrastructure & DevOps
| Skill | Description |
|---|
| healthcheck | Audit/harden OpenClaw hosts — SSH, firewall, updates, security |
| node-connect | Diagnose OpenClaw node pairing and connection issues |
| tmux | Control tmux sessions/panes for interactive CLIs |
| clawhub | Search, install, update, publish, and sync ClawHub skills |
| skill-creator | Create, edit, audit, and validate SKILL.md files |
| mcporter | List, configure, and call MCP servers/tools |
| Skill | Description |
|---|
| diagram-maker | SVG/HTML or Excalidraw diagrams for concepts, architecture, flows |
| meme-maker | Search templates, suggest formats, generate image memes |
| video-frames | Extract frames or clips from videos using ffmpeg |
| camsnap | Capture from RTSP/ONVIF cameras |
| gifgrep | Search GIF providers, download, extract stills |
| songsee | Spectrograms and feature-panel visualizations from audio |
Audio & Voice
| Skill | Description |
|---|
| openai-whisper-api | OpenAI transcription API — gpt-4o-transcribe, diarize |
| openai-whisper | Local speech-to-text with Whisper CLI |
| sag | ElevenLabs text-to-speech |
| sherpa-onnx-tts | Local text-to-speech via sherpa-onnx (offline) |
Smart Home & Hardware
| Skill | Description |
|---|
| blucli | BluOS CLI for discovery, playback, grouping, and volume |
| eightctl | Eight Sleep pod control — temperature, alarms, schedules |
| openhue | Philips Hue lights and scenes |
| sonoscli | Sonos speaker control — discover, play, volume, group |
| spotify-player | Terminal Spotify playback/search via spogo |
Utilities
| Skill | Description |
|---|
| weather | Current weather and forecasts |
| goplaces | Google Places — text search, details, reviews |
| 1password | 1Password CLI for secrets management |
| bear-notes | Bear notes via grizzly CLI |
| nano-pdf | Edit PDFs with natural-language instructions |
| ordercli | Foodora order history and status |
| peekaboo | Capture and automate macOS UI |
| oracle | Second-model review/debug with selected files |
| gemini | Gemini CLI for one-shot prompts and generation |
| taskflow | Multi-step detached task coordination |
| taskflow-inbox-triage | TaskFlow pattern for inbox triage and intent routing |
Skill Statistics
| Layer | Count | Location |
|---|
| Workspace | 29 | skills/ |
| Plugin | 4 | ~/.openclaw/plugin-skills/ |
| System | 43 | OpenClaw core |
| Total | 76 | |
Skills are co-created, not installed. Every session is potentially a new capability.