If you're setting up OpenClaw for the first time, you'll quickly realise that the base install doesn't do much on its own. The agent needs to be taught what tools it has access to and how to use them. That's where Skills come in. They're essentially the thing that separates a basic AI chat interface from an agent that can actually manage your inbox, run web searches, or trigger automations on your behalf.
Skills are also where most of the security risk lives. They run with whatever access you've granted your OpenClaw agent, which means a badly written or malicious skill can do real damage. We'll cover both sides of that equation.
