macOS Skills Setup and Gateway Status

The macOS application obtains OpenClaw skills through the gateway, with no local parsing performed.

Data source

skills.status (gateway) provides every skill along with its eligibility and missing requirements, and it also flags allowlist blocks that apply to bundled skills.
Each SKILL.md carries a metadata.openclaw.requires field from which requirements are derived.

Install options are defined by metadata.openclaw.install (brew/node/go/uv/download).
Installers are executed on the gateway host by the app through a call to skills.install.
Operator-owned security.installPolicy (enabled, targets, exec) takes precedence over installer metadata. A failed block result or a policy rejection halts the installation. When a warn result appears, the gateway-backed request is also halted: either examine it with the matching direct CLI if one is available, or adjust the policy to permit the reviewed request, then attempt again.
When every install option is download, the gateway presents all download choices.
If that is not the case, the gateway selects a single preferred installer based on current install preferences (skills.install.preferBrew, skills.install.nodeManager) and host binaries, following this order: Homebrew first when preferBrew is enabled and brew exists, then uv, then the configured node manager, then Homebrew again if available (even without preferBrew), then go, then download.
Labels for Node installs mirror the configured node manager, with yarn included.

Keys are stored by the app in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json under skills.entries.<skillKey>.
skills.update applies patches to enabled, apiKey, and env.

The gateway host, not the local Mac, handles install and config updates.
When skill files, config, Mac-node connectivity, its catalog, or its executable inventory shift, the gateway emits skills.changed after invalidating its authoritative snapshot. An open Skills pane then refetches skills.status, which also captures changes that complete while an earlier request remains active.