cmd-skill-stocktake

name	cmd_skill_stocktake
description	Audit all installed OpenClaw skills for quality: content overlap, freshness, and uniqueness. Supports Quick Scan (changed only) and Full Stocktake modes.
user-invocable	true
origin	openclaw-mas
argument-hint	<project-path> [--full]

Project Path

The first argument is the project path. Before doing anything else:

1. Extract the project path from the first argument
2. Verify the path exists
3. Work within that directory for all file operations and shell commands

Skill Stocktake

Audit all installed OpenClaw skills using a quality checklist and AI holistic judgment. Supports two modes: Quick Scan for recently changed skills, and Full Stocktake for a complete review.

Usage

/skill cmd_skill_stocktake <project-path>         # Quick Scan (default if results exist)
/skill cmd_skill_stocktake <project-path> --full  # Force Full Stocktake

Scope

Scans two locations:

Path	Description
~/.openclaw/skills/	Global installed skills
<project-path>/skills/	Project-local skills (if the directory exists)

At the start of Phase 1, explicitly list which paths were found and scanned.

Modes

Mode	Trigger	Duration
Quick Scan	Results file exists and --full not passed	5–10 min
Full Stocktake	Results file absent, or --full passed	20–30 min

Results cache: <project-path>/skill-stocktake-results.json

---

Quick Scan Flow

Re-evaluate only skills that changed since the last run.

1. Read <project-path>/skill-stocktake-results.json
2. Find changed skills by comparing current mtimes to cached mtimes:

   find ~/.openclaw/skills/ <project-path>/skills/ -name "SKILL.md" 2>/dev/null \
     | while read f; do echo "$(stat -f '%m' "$f" 2>/dev/null || stat -c '%Y' "$f") $f"; done
   

3. If no files changed since evaluated_at: report "No changes since last run." and stop.
4. Re-evaluate only changed skills using the same Phase 2 criteria.
5. Carry forward unchanged skills from previous results.
6. Output only the diff table.
7. Update <project-path>/skill-stocktake-results.json with new results.

---

Full Stocktake Flow

Phase 1 — Inventory

Enumerate all skill files and extract frontmatter:

find ~/.openclaw/skills/ <project-path>/skills/ -name "SKILL.md" 2>/dev/null

For each SKILL.md, extract:

• name (from frontmatter)
• description (from frontmatter)
• origin (from frontmatter)
• Last modified time: stat -f '%Sm' -t '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ' <file> (macOS) or stat -c '%y' <file> (Linux)
• Line count: wc -l < <file>

Present the scan summary:

Skill Stocktake — Phase 1: Inventory
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Scanning:
  ✓ ~/.openclaw/skills/         (<N> files)
  ✓ <project-path>/skills/      (<M> files)

Total: <N+M> skills

Build the inventory table:

Skill	Origin	Lines	Last Modified	Description

Phase 2 — Quality Evaluation

Launch an Agent tool subagent (general-purpose) with the full inventory and checklist. Process ~20 skills per subagent invocation to keep context manageable.

For each batch, the subagent evaluates each skill against this checklist:

- [ ] Content overlap with other skills checked
- [ ] Overlap with MEMORY.md / CLAUDE.md checked
- [ ] Freshness of technical references verified (use WebSearch if tool names / CLI flags / APIs are present)
- [ ] Usage frequency considered (infer from recency of last modification)

The subagent returns per-skill JSON:

{ "verdict": "Keep|Improve|Update|Retire|Merge into [X]", "reason": "..." }

Verdict criteria:

Verdict	Meaning
Keep	Useful and current
Improve	Worth keeping, but specific improvements needed
Update	Referenced technology is outdated (verify with WebSearch)
Retire	Low quality, stale, or cost-asymmetric
Merge into [X]	Substantial overlap with another skill; name the merge target

Evaluation is holistic AI judgment — not a numeric rubric. Guiding dimensions:

• Actionability: code examples, commands, or steps that let you act immediately
• Scope fit: name, trigger, and content are aligned; not too broad or narrow
• Uniqueness: value not replaceable by MEMORY.md / CLAUDE.md / another skill
• Currency: technical references work in the current environment

Reason quality requirements — the reason field must be self-contained:

• For Retire: state (1) what specific defect was found, (2) what covers the same need instead
• For Merge: name the target and describe what content to integrate
• For Improve: describe the specific change needed (what section, what action)
• For Keep (Quick Scan mtime-only change): restate the original verdict rationale

Save intermediate results to <project-path>/skill-stocktake-results.json with "status": "in_progress" after each chunk.

Resume detection: If status: "in_progress" is found on startup, resume from the first unevaluated skill.

After all skills are evaluated: set status: "completed", proceed to Phase 3.

Phase 3 — Summary Table

| Skill | Origin | Verdict | Reason |
|-------|--------|---------|--------|

Phase 4 — Consolidation

1. Retire / Merge: present detailed justification per file before confirming with user:
   • What specific problem was found (overlap, staleness, broken references, etc.)
   • What alternative covers the same functionality
   • Impact of removal (any dependent skills, MEMORY.md references, or workflows affected)
2. Improve: present specific improvement suggestions with rationale
3. Update: present updated content with sources checked
4. Check ~/.openclaw/workspace-main/MEMORY.md line count; propose compression if >100 lines

Never retire or merge skills without explicit user confirmation.

---

Results File Schema

<project-path>/skill-stocktake-results.json:

{
  "evaluated_at": "2026-02-21T10:00:00Z",
  "mode": "full",
  "batch_progress": {
    "total": 80,
    "evaluated": 80,
    "status": "completed"
  },
  "skills": {
    "skill-name": {
      "path": "~/.openclaw/skills/skill-name/SKILL.md",
      "verdict": "Keep",
      "reason": "Concrete, actionable, unique value for X workflow",
      "mtime": "2026-01-15T08:30:00Z"
    }
  }
}

Get the current UTC timestamp for evaluated_at:

date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ

---

Notes

• Evaluation is blind: the same checklist applies to all skills regardless of origin
• Archive / delete operations always require explicit user confirmation
• No verdict branching by skill origin (ECC, openclaw-mas, community all treated equally)