What's the Difference Between OpenClaw Tools and Skills?

Tools are organs. Skills are textbooks. Confusing them is the most common mistake new OpenClaw users make.

Tools determine whether your agent can do something. Skills teach it how to do it well. You need both.

Tools = Capability

Tools are foundational capabilities — on or off toggles in openclaw.json:

• read — can it read files?
• write — can it create/modify files?
• exec — can it run shell commands?
• browser — can it control a browser?
• message — can it send messages?

If a Tool is disabled, no amount of prompting or Skill installation will change that.

Skills = Competence

Skills are instructions that teach your agent how to combine Tools for specific tasks. A GitHub Skill teaches commit patterns, branching, and PR workflows.

The key: Skills don't grant permissions. Installing the Obsidian Skill without the write Tool? Your agent knows how to organize notes but can't create any files. Chef with no stove.

Real Example: GitHub

Want your agent to manage repos? You need:

• Tools: exec, read, write
• Skill: GitHub (teaches commit messages, branching, merge conflicts)

Tools let it execute. Skills make it competent.

Skill Not Working? Check This

1. Is the Tool enabled? Check openclaw.json security policy.
2. Is the Skill loaded? Check your skill configuration.
3. Dependencies? Some Skills need multiple Tools.

Nine times out of ten, it's a disabled Tool. The agent knows what to do — it just can't.

Start With Tools

Get read, write, exec, and browser sorted first — those cover 80% of use cases. Add Skills later as real workflows emerge.

Organs first. Textbooks second.