With a growing number of OpenClaw skills available, it can be hard to know where to start. This guide highlights the most useful skills across key categories to help you build effective agent workflows.
Browser & Automation
agent-browser
agent-browser gives your OpenClaw agent the ability to interact with web pages directly. It can navigate URLs, click buttons, fill forms, and extract page content.
This is one of the most versatile skills available. If your workflow involves any kind of web interaction, agent-browser is likely essential.
Best for: Web scraping, form automation, UI testing, data extraction from web applications.
Search & Research
firecrawl-search
firecrawl-search uses the Firecrawl API to crawl and extract structured content from websites. Unlike basic web scraping, it handles JavaScript-rendered pages and returns clean, structured data.
Best for: Deep content extraction, site crawling, structured data collection.
brave-search
brave-search connects your agent to the Brave Search API for privacy-focused web searches. It returns structured search results without tracking or profiling.
Best for: General web search, privacy-conscious workflows, real-time information retrieval.
exa
exa provides semantic search capabilities through the Exa API. Instead of keyword matching, it understands the meaning behind queries and returns contextually relevant results.
Best for: Research tasks, finding similar content, semantic document discovery.
File System
file-search
file-search enables your agent to search, read, and navigate local file systems. It supports pattern matching, content search, and directory traversal.
Best for: Code analysis, log file inspection, local data processing, project exploration.
Advanced Research
deep-research
deep-research orchestrates multi-step research workflows by combining search, extraction, and synthesis. It goes beyond single queries to build comprehensive understanding of a topic.
Best for: Market research, competitive analysis, technical documentation review, literature surveys.
Security & Utility
safe-exec
safe-exec provides a sandboxed execution environment for running code and commands safely. It isolates agent operations to prevent unintended system modifications.
Best for: Code execution in untrusted environments, safe script testing, isolated command running.
og-openclawguard
og-openclawguard monitors and validates agent behavior against safety policies in real-time. It can block or flag operations that violate defined rules.
Best for: Production agent monitoring, compliance enforcement, behavior auditing.
kubectl-skill
kubectl-skill enables agents to interact with Kubernetes clusters. It can query cluster status, manage pods and deployments, and execute kubectl commands programmatically.
Best for: Kubernetes cluster monitoring, automated deployment management, infrastructure troubleshooting.
How to Choose
Not every workflow needs every skill. Start by identifying what your agent needs to do, then select the minimum set of skills required. Avoid enabling skills you do not actively use, especially those with broad system access.
For a complete list of available skills, visit the OpenClaw Skills Directory.