#OpenClaw

#OpenClaw

OpenClaw is an autonomous AI agent framework with its own workspace and skills system. Tessl integrates with OpenClaw by installing skills directly into an agent workspace — no MCP configuration or rules files are used, to keep config clean.

#How skills work with OpenClaw

Tessl installs skills as symlinks into the skills/ directory of your OpenClaw agent workspace. OpenClaw reads skills from this directory automatically.

Skills installed by Tessl are prefixed with tessl__ so they can be identified and managed separately from your other skills, if necessary.

#Installing skills

Navigate to your agent workspace directory before running tessl install. A workspace is identified by the presence of a .openclaw/workspace-state.json file.

cd ~/.openclaw/workspace   # or whichever workspace you want to install into
tessl install plugin-name

If you run tessl install from anywhere other than a workspace root, Tessl will exit with an error and suggest the correct directories to navigate to.

#Multiple agents

If you have more than one OpenClaw agent, run tessl install separately from each workspace:

cd ~/.openclaw/workspaces/agent1
tessl install plugin-name

cd ~/.openclaw/workspaces/agent2
tessl install plugin-name

#Installing for coding agents at the same time

If your OpenClaw agent uses coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, etc.), use the --agent flag to control which agents receive skills:

# Install for both OpenClaw and a coding agent
tessl install plugin-name --agent openclaw --agent claude-code

# Install for a coding agent only, skip OpenClaw
tessl install plugin-name --agent claude-code

With no --agent flag, Tessl auto-detects which agents are present in the workspace directory, and installs for all of them.

#Using tessl init

tessl init is not supported in OpenClaw workspaces. If you run it from a workspace root, Tessl will exit with an error and prompt you to run tessl install instead.