Manage OpenClaw Skills on macOS: Gateway Configuration

Ever felt like setting up new tools on your machine is a chore? You want to get things running without manually hunting down dependencies or worrying about where your API keys are stored. If you’re using the OpenClaw macOS app, the process is handled through a gateway to keep things organized. The app surfaces skills through this gateway instead of trying to parse them locally on your Mac.

Data source

When you look at your skills, the macOS app talks directly to the gateway. The skills.status endpoint gives you the full picture: it returns all skills, eligibility status, missing requirements, and allowlist blocks for bundled skills. All those requirements come straight from the metadata.openclaw.requires section found in each SKILL.md file.

Install actions

Installing a skill is straightforward. The app uses metadata.openclaw.install to figure out how to get the job done, whether that’s through brew, node, go, or uv. When you click install, the app tells the gateway to run the installer. Safety is built-in: if the system finds critical dangerous code, it blocks the install. You’ll still get a warning for suspicious findings, but the app defaults to a “fail-closed” approach for your protection. Even though a dangerous override exists for the gateway request, the standard flow stays secure. If there are multiple ways to install something, the gateway picks the best one—usually brew or a node manager like npm.

Env/API keys

You don’t have to wonder where your keys are hiding. The app keeps everything in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json under skills.entries.<skillKey>. When you need to toggle a skill or update your credentials, the skills.update command handles patching your enabled status, your apiKey, your env settings, and your skill entries.

Remote mode

Keep in mind that when you’re working in remote mode, the action happens elsewhere. Both the installation and the configuration updates take place on the gateway host rather than your local Mac. This keeps your local environment clean while the gateway handles the execution.

AI Setup Assistant

Next steps

• Gateway Configuration
• Skill Metadata Reference