what's the difference between skills and plugins in openclaw?
✅Solved
when should i use each of them?
Solution
Use skills when you want to change what the agent knows/how it behaves.
Use plugins when you want to change what OpenClaw can do (new code/features/tools/channels).
- You want something that’s basically prompt + structure + guardrails (checklists, step-by-step procedures, templates, “when user says X, do Y”).
- You want fast iteration / easy customization (drop a folder with
- You want a slash command that’s mostly instruction, or even a direct tool-dispatch command (no extra code).
Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai/tools/skills
- a brand-new tool (e.g., “call my internal API”, “talk to Jira”, “control my hardware”)
- a new channel integration (Teams/Matrix/etc)
- new CLI commands, Gateway RPC, HTTP handlers, background services, etc.
- You need robust logic/state that shouldn’t live in prompts (auth flows, retries, pagination, signatures, rate limits).
Use plugins when you want to change what OpenClaw can do (new code/features/tools/channels).
Use a skill when…
- You’re teaching the agent a workflow using tools that already exist (built-in tools likeweb_fetchmessagebrowser- You want something that’s basically prompt + structure + guardrails (checklists, step-by-step procedures, templates, “when user says X, do Y”).
- You want fast iteration / easy customization (drop a folder with
SKILL.md- You want a slash command that’s mostly instruction, or even a direct tool-dispatch command (no extra code).
Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai/tools/skills
Use a plugin when…
- You need new functionality implemented in code:- a brand-new tool (e.g., “call my internal API”, “talk to Jira”, “control my hardware”)
- a new channel integration (Teams/Matrix/etc)
- new CLI commands, Gateway RPC, HTTP handlers, background services, etc.
- You need robust logic/state that shouldn’t live in prompts (auth flows, retries, pagination, signatures, rate limits).
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