Neura Market Logo

macOS Skills: Gateway-Backed Status and Install Actions

This page explains how the macOS app uses a gateway to manage OpenClaw skills, including status retrieval, eligibility checks, and install actions. It is intended for developers and system administrators configuring skill installations.

Read this when

  • Updating the macOS Skills settings UI
  • Changing skills gating or install behavior

The macOS app exposes OpenClaw skills through the gateway instead of parsing them locally.

Data source

  • skills.status (gateway) provides all skills along with eligibility and missing requirements, including allowlist blocks for bundled skills.
  • Requirements originate from metadata.openclaw.requires inside each SKILL.md.

Install actions

  • metadata.openclaw.install defines install options (brew/node/go/uv/download).
  • The app calls skills.install to run installers on the gateway host.
  • Operator-owned security.installPolicy (enabled, targets, exec) can prevent gateway-backed skill installs before installer metadata executes. Built-in dangerous-code scanning (used for plugin installs) is not connected to the skill install flow.
  • When every install option is download, the gateway shows all download choices.
  • Otherwise the gateway selects one preferred installer based on current install preferences (skills.install.preferBrew, skills.install.nodeManager) and host binaries: Homebrew first if preferBrew is enabled and brew is available, then uv, then the configured node manager, then Homebrew again if present (even without preferBrew), then go, then download.
  • Node install labels reflect the configured node manager, including yarn.

Env/API keys

  • The app stores keys in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json under skills.entries.<skillKey>.
  • skills.update modifies enabled, apiKey, and env.

Remote mode

  • Install and config updates occur on the gateway host, not on the local Mac.