Skills System

Skills are reusable workflow templates that extend OpenCrabs with specialized capabilities. They work across Claude Code, Anthropic managed agents, and OpenClaw using a shared SKILL.md format.

How Skills Work

Each skill lives in its own directory under ~/.opencrabs/skills/:

~/.opencrabs/skills/
├── security-audit/
│   └── SKILL.md
├── cost-estimate/
│   └── SKILL.md
└── my-custom-skill/
    └── SKILL.md

Skill Format

Every skill is a markdown file with YAML frontmatter:

---
name: security-audit
description: Language-agnostic security & CVE audit for any codebase
---

# Security Audit

You are a senior security engineer performing a comprehensive
security audit of the codebase in the current working directory...

## Stage 1 — Project detection
...

The name and description fields in the frontmatter are required. The markdown body becomes the prompt that gets injected when the skill runs.

Built-in vs User Skills

Skills come from two sources:

Built-in (orange badge) — ship with the OpenCrabs binary via include_str!. Always available.
User (teal badge) — created by you in ~/.opencrabs/skills/<name>/SKILL.md. Override built-ins by file presence.

Built-in Skills

Skill	Description
`opencli`	Reference for all 25+ opencli-rs dynamic tools (news, social, search, web). Use when user asks about trending topics, news, social media, jobs, or web search.
`browser-cdp`	Native CDP browser automation reference. Headless/headed Chrome control, screenshots, JS evaluation.
`a2a-gateway`	Agent-to-Agent (A2A) protocol gateway reference. JSON-RPC 2.0 peer-to-peer agent communication.
`dynamic-tools`	Runtime tool management with tool_manage and tools.toml format. Create, enable, disable, reload tools without restart.
`security-audit`	Language-agnostic security & CVE audit. Detects project type from manifests, runs the appropriate scanner, reviews the diff for injection / auth / crypto / deserialization / path-traversal patterns, and scores 0-100.
`cost-estimate`	Codebase cost-to-build estimate, AI-assisted ROI breakdown, and fair-market valuation.
`repo-audit`	Language-agnostic repository health checks. 5-phase pipeline: language detection, native tool execution, git metrics, AST analysis, scoring + recommendations. Covers Rust, JS/TS, Python, Go. (v0.3.18)

Running Skills

Skills Picker (`/skills`)

Type /skills to open the full-screen filterable picker. The top shows a filter bar with the total skill count. The main area lists all skills, each showing:

Skill name as a slash command (e.g. /security-audit)
Type badge — orange built-in or teal user
Description of what the skill does
Keywords for search matching in parentheses

Key	Action
`Tab` / `↑↓`	Navigate the skill list
`Enter`	Run the selected skill
`Esc`	Close the picker
Type	Filter skills by name and description (case-insensitive)

When the filter narrows to a single match, Enter fires it immediately.

Slash Commands

Type any skill name directly as a slash command:

/security-audit

Channels

Skills auto-register as slash commands across all connected channels (Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp). No commands.toml entry needed. Just type /<skill-name> in any channel to run it.

Creating Custom Skills

Create a directory under ~/.opencrabs/skills/:

mkdir -p ~/.opencrabs/skills/my-skill

Create SKILL.md with frontmatter and prompt:

---
name: my-skill
description: What this skill does
keywords: [my-skill, custom, example]
---

# My Skill

Instructions for the agent when this skill runs...

The skill immediately appears in /skills (with a user badge) and as /my-skill in TUI and all channels.

Cross-Harness Compatibility

The SKILL.md format works identically on:

OpenCrabs — native support via /skills picker and slash commands
Claude Code — drop the same SKILL.md file into Claude Code’s skills directory
Anthropic managed agents — compatible with managed agent skill loading
OpenClaw — works with OpenClaw’s skill system

Write a skill once, use it everywhere.

The RSI engine can propose new skills based on usage patterns it observes in the feedback ledger. For example, if the agent repeatedly performs a multi-step workflow that isn’t covered by an existing skill, RSI will draft a skill and file it in the Mission Control inbox for your review.

This is part of the RSI Proposals system — RSI identifies gaps in the agent’s capabilities and drafts solutions, but installation always requires your approval.

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