Quick Answer: OpenClaw stores skills at
~/.openclaw/skills/for personal skills and.openclaw/skills/for project-scoped skills. The directory layout and SKILL.md format are identical to Claude Code, so the same skill folder works in both agents without modification.
OpenClaw is the open-source AI coding agent that reads the same SKILL.md format as Claude Code. If you've already got a Claude skills library, you can use every skill in OpenClaw by symlinking or copying the directory.
Default OpenClaw skills paths
| Scope | Path |
|---|---|
| Personal (all projects) | ~/.openclaw/skills/ |
| Project-scoped | .openclaw/skills/ (inside the repo) |
On macOS the personal path expands to /Users/you/.openclaw/skills/. On Linux it's /home/you/.openclaw/skills/. On Windows it's C:\Users\you\.openclaw\skills\.
Sharing skills between Claude Code and OpenClaw
Three options, in order of preference:
1. Symlink (recommended — one source of truth):
ln -s ~/.claude/skills ~/.openclaw/skills
2. Copy individual skills (if you want different sets):
cp -r ~/.claude/skills/code-reviewer ~/.openclaw/skills/
3. Install fresh from Agensi: every Agensi skill works in OpenClaw — just unzip into ~/.openclaw/skills/.
Folder structure
~/.openclaw/skills/
└── code-reviewer/
├── SKILL.md
├── scripts/
│ └── check.sh
└── references/
└── style-guide.md
Same as Claude Code. Every skill is a folder with SKILL.md at the root.
Verify OpenClaw loaded the skill
openclaw skills list
Or inside an OpenClaw session, ask "what skills do you have access to?" — the agent enumerates them.
Common mistakes
- Using
.claude/skills/for OpenClaw — won't be discovered, OpenClaw only scans its own paths - Mixed-case folder names — stick to lowercase-with-hyphens for portability
- Forgetting that symlinks need to be absolute paths on some filesystems
What's next
- Where are Claude skills stored? — full path reference for Claude Code
- How to add skills to Claude — installation methods