Skills

Skills are behavioral recipes. A Skill is a folder with a SKILL.md file — no code, no build step. They tell the Brain how to approach a task by providing structured instructions.

SKILL.md Format

---
name: summarize
description: "Summarize text, articles, or documents"
---
When asked to summarize content:
1. Identify the key points
2. Condense into 3-5 bullet points
...

The frontmatter defines metadata (name, description, required tools). The body contains the instructions the Brain follows.

Progressive Loading

Skills are loaded on demand, not all at once. The Brain sees a compact list of available skills with descriptions. When a skill matches the current task, the Brain calls skill_read to load the full instructions.

This keeps the context window lean — only relevant skills are loaded.

Skill Tools

Tool	Purpose
skill_read	Load full skill instructions
skill_read_reference	Access skill reference files
skill_list_files	List files in a skill directory

Installing Skills

From ClawHub

ClawHub has 13,000+ community skills:

npx vole clawhub install summarize
npx vole clawhub search email

Create Local Skills

npx vole skill create email-triage

This creates a new skill directory in .openvole/skills/email-triage/ with a template SKILL.md.

Manage Skills

npx vole skill list          # List loaded skills
npx vole skill add my-skill  # Add a local skill
npx vole skill remove my-skill

OpenClaw Compatibility

OpenVole loads OpenClaw skills natively — same SKILL.md format, same metadata.openclaw.requires fields. Skills written for OpenClaw work on OpenVole and vice versa.

Configuration

Add skills to your vole.config.json:

{
  "skills": ["clawhub/summarize", "local/email-triage"]
}