OpenClaw Skills Failing Silently — How to Debug (2026)

Why Skills Fail Silently

OpenClaw is designed to be resilient — when a skill fails, it catches the error and continues the conversation without notifying the user. This is great for user experience but terrible for debugging. Here's how to find and fix the issues.

Step-by-Step Debugging

1. Enable Debug Logging

{
  "logging": {
    "level": "debug",
    "skills": true,
    "includeStackTrace": true
  }
}

# Or via environment variable:
OPENCLAW_LOG_LEVEL=debug openclaw start

2. Test Skills Individually

# Test a specific skill
openclaw skill test web-search --input "latest OpenClaw release"

# List all installed skills and their status
openclaw skill list --verbose

# Check skill configuration
openclaw skill info web-search

3. Check Common Failure Causes

Missing API keys: Many skills require their own API keys (e.g., web search needs a search API key)
Network errors: Skills that call external APIs may fail due to DNS or firewall issues
Timeouts: Skills have a default timeout of 30 seconds — complex operations may need more
Permission errors: File system skills need read/write access to specific directories
Version mismatch: Skill built for a different OpenClaw version

4. Increase Skill Timeout

{
  "skills": {
    "timeout": 60000,
    "retries": 2,
    "retryDelay": 1000
  }
}

5. Check Skill Dependencies

# Some skills need external packages
cd /opt/openclaw
npm ls

# Reinstall skill dependencies
openclaw skill reinstall web-search

Making Skills Report Errors to Users

{
  "skills": {
    "errorBehavior": "report",
    "errorMessage": "Sorry, I couldn't complete that action. Please try again."
  }
}

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do OpenClaw skills fail silently?

Skills may fail silently due to: missing API keys the skill needs, network errors swallowed by try/catch blocks, incorrect skill configuration, permission issues, or the skill timing out. Enable debug logging to see the actual errors.

How do I enable skill debug logging?

Set OPENCLAW_LOG_LEVEL=debug in your environment or add "logging": { "level": "debug", "skills": true } to openclaw.json. This will log all skill invocations, inputs, outputs, and errors.

How do I test a skill individually?

Use the OpenClaw CLI to test skills in isolation: openclaw skill test <skill-name> --input "test input". This runs the skill outside of a conversation and shows the raw output or error.

Can a broken skill crash the entire OpenClaw instance?

By default, skill errors are caught and the agent continues without the skill result. However, a skill with an infinite loop or excessive memory usage can crash the process. Set skill timeouts to prevent this.