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Shared vs Agent-Specific Skills

MosBot OS supports two categories of skills, each stored in a different location in the OpenClaw workspace filesystem.

Shared skills

Location: /skills/

Shared skills are available to all agents. They live in the root /skills/ directory of the OpenClaw workspace.

Use shared skills for:

  • Tasks that any agent might need to perform
  • Common workflows used across multiple agents
  • Organization-wide standards and templates
/skills/
├── summarize ← any agent can use /summarize
├── write_report
├── code_review
└── daily_brief

Agent-specific skills

Location: /workspace-<agent-id>/skills/

Agent-specific skills are available only to the agent whose workspace they live in. They live inside an agent's workspace directory.

Use agent-specific skills for:

  • Tasks specific to that agent's role
  • Skills that reference agent-specific context or tools
  • Specialized workflows for a particular agent
/workspace-cto/skills/
├── architecture_review ← only the CTO agent can use this
├── code_audit
└── tech_debt_analysis

/workspace-cmo/skills/
├── campaign_brief ← only the CMO agent can use this
└── market_analysis

How the Skills page organizes them

In the MosBot Dashboard's Skills page, skills are grouped into two sections:

  1. Shared Skills — all files from /skills/
  2. Agent-Only Skills — grouped by agent, showing each agent's skills from /workspace-<id>/skills/

Choosing between shared and agent-specific

Use shared skills when...Use agent-specific skills when...
Multiple agents need the same skillThe skill is tailored to one agent's role
The skill is general-purposeThe skill references agent-specific tools or context
You want a consistent workflow across agentsYou want to customize behavior per agent

Skill naming

Skill names are derived from the folder name. A folder named code_review becomes the /code_review command.

Keep skill folder names:

  • snake_case (lowercase with underscores)
  • Short and descriptive
  • Unique within their scope (shared or per-agent)
If a shared skill and an agent-specific skill have the same name, the agent-specific skill

takes precedence for that agent. :::