How Agent Reach Handles Skill Installation for OpenClaw, Claude Code, and Generic Agents

Agent Reach automatically deploys its skill definitions to platform-specific directories—including ~/.agents/skills, ~/.openclaw/skills, and ~/.claude/skills—by detecting the host environment and copying localized SKILL.md files via the _install_skill helper in agent_reach/cli.py.

The Panniantong/Agent-Reach repository provides a unified skill installation mechanism that eliminates manual configuration across disparate agent runtimes. By analyzing environment variables and standard directory conventions, the tool ensures that OpenClaw, Claude Code, and generic .agents-compatible platforms can discover and load the latest skill definitions without user intervention.

Platform-Specific Skill Directories and Detection Logic

Agent Reach maintains a hard-coded priority list of three installation targets, iterating through each to determine where the skill should reside:

• Generic .agents: ~/.agents/skills/agent-reach (highest priority)
• OpenClaw: ~/.openclaw/skills/agent-reach
• Claude Code: ~/.claude/skills/agent-reach

The core logic resides in agent_reach/cli.py, specifically within the private _install_skill function.

Dynamic Path Resolution for OpenClaw

When the OPENCLAW_HOME environment variable is present, Agent Reach resolves the additional path $OPENCLAW_HOME/.openclaw/skills and prepends it to the priority list. This guarantees that non-standard OpenClaw installations take precedence over default locations. If the variable is unset, the function falls back to the standard ~/.openclaw/skills entry.

Fallback Strategy for Clean Environments

If none of the three platform directories exist on the host system, Agent Reach creates the generic ~/.agents/skills path automatically and installs the skill there. This ensures the installation succeeds even when no agent runtime is currently detected.

The Installation Pipeline in agent_reach/cli.py

The _install_skill function orchestrates a four-stage pipeline that handles localization, resource loading, and atomic file operations.

Locale-Aware Skill Selection

Before copying files, the function determines which language variant to install. It invokes _is_english_locale to inspect environment variables in the following order:

1. AGENT_REACH_LANG
2. LC_ALL
3. LC_MESSAGES
4. LANG

If any of these variables start with "en" or "english", the installer selects SKILL_en.md; otherwise, it defaults to the Chinese-language SKILL.md.

Resource Loading and File Copying

The _read_skill_markdown helper loads skill resources from the package using importlib.resources.files("agent_reach").joinpath("skill"). The _copy_skill_dir function then executes the following operations:

• Creates the target directory if missing
• Safely removes any existing installation (handling symlinks correctly to avoid breaking the filesystem)
• Writes the selected markdown file as SKILL.md in the target directory
• Copies every .md file from the package's references/ subdirectory

For each valid platform directory found, the function emits a status message indicating whether the skill was installed, preserved (already present), or failed.

Installing and Uninstalling Skills

Agent Reach exposes both command-line interfaces and programmatic APIs for managing skill installations.

CLI Installation Commands

# Standard installation flow (runs doctor, then installs skills)

agent-reach install

# Explicit skill installation only

agent-reach skill --install

# Force reinstall (overwrites existing files)

agent-reach skill --install --force

Programmatic API

You can invoke the installation logic directly from Python, though these functions are not part of the public API:

from agent_reach.cli import _install_skill, _uninstall_skill

# Install with automatic locale detection and platform discovery

_install_skill(force=True)

# Remove skill from all detected platform directories

_uninstall_skill()

Uninstallation Process

The _uninstall_skill function mirrors the installation logic, iterating over the same three priority paths (including the optional OPENCLAW_HOME variant). It recursively removes the entire agent-reach directory from each location, safely handling symlinks by unlinking rather than following them. This ensures complete removal without affecting other skill installations.

Summary

• Agent Reach supports three runtime environments: generic .agents, OpenClaw, and Claude Code, installing skills to their respective ~/.{platform}/skills/agent-reach directories.
• The _install_skill function in agent_reach/cli.py detects English locales via AGENT_REACH_LANG, LC_ALL, LC_MESSAGES, and LANG to select between SKILL_en.md and SKILL.md.
• OpenClaw installations respect the OPENCLAW_HOME environment variable, prepending the custom path to the installation priority list.
• The _copy_skill_dir helper atomically replaces existing installations and copies all files from the references/ directory.
• Uninstallation uses _uninstall_skill to clean all known locations simultaneously, handling symlinks safely.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Agent Reach choose between English and Chinese skill definitions?

Agent Reach checks the environment variables AGENT_REACH_LANG, LC_ALL, LC_MESSAGES, and LANG in sequence. If any value starts with "en" or "english", the installer copies SKILL_en.md from the package resources; otherwise, it defaults to the Chinese SKILL.md. This logic is encapsulated in the _is_english_locale helper within agent_reach/cli.py.

Can I install the skill to a custom location outside the standard directories?

No, Agent Reach does not support arbitrary installation paths. The tool relies on a hard-coded priority list of platform-specific directories. However, you can influence OpenClaw's target by setting the OPENCLAW_HOME environment variable, which causes the installer to prepend $OPENCLAW_HOME/.openclaw/skills to the priority list.

What happens if I have multiple agent platforms installed simultaneously?

Agent Reach installs the skill to all detected platform directories concurrently. If your system contains ~/.agents/skills, ~/.openclaw/skills, and ~/.claude/skills, the _install_skill function updates each location with the latest skill files and references during a single invocation.

How do I completely remove the Agent Reach skill from my system?

Run agent-reach skill --uninstall or call _uninstall_skill() programmatically. This iterates over all known directories (including the OPENCLAW_HOME variant if set) and recursively deletes the agent-reach skill folder from each location, effectively removing the skill from OpenClaw, Claude Code, and generic agent runtimes simultaneously.

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