Skill Cortex

Triggers when installed Skills cannot complete the current task. If you can handle it yourself, just do it — do not trigger this flow.

Cortex data file: ~/.openclaw/skill-cortex/cortex.json (schema in docs/DESIGN.md).

Phase 1: Perception

1. Read cortex.json (if missing or corrupt, skip to step 3).
2. Semantically match the user's task description against sensory.patterns signals (no exact match required — use your own judgment on intent alignment). On hit, look up the corresponding region in motor, sort candidates by effective weight (effective_weight = weight * max(0.3, 1 - days_since_last_used / 180)), filter out blacklisted and effective_weight < 0.3 entries, then proceed to Phase 2.
3. On miss, search ClawHub: clawhub search "<3-5 English keywords>". Read summaries only, pick up to 3 candidates. If fewer than 2 relevant results, supplement with a GitHub search (mark as unreviewed source).

Phase 2: Validation & Authorization

Reflex Fast Path

The top candidate may enter reflex mode when ALL of the following hold:

• reflex: true AND effective_weight >= 0.90 AND consecutive successes >= 5
• No write side effects (side_effects contains no write:/delete:/shell: prefix)
• Version unchanged (slug + version match the stored record)

Reflex mode skips only the execution plan confirmation. Installation still requires user notification:

⚡ Skill Cortex reflex: todoist-cli v1.2.0 (96% success rate)
   Task: query today's todos (read-only) | Will install and execute. Say cancel to abort.

Version change automatically downgrades to standard mode.

Standard Mode

Present candidates to the user (name, description, stars, downloads, source, security scan status, history). Wait for explicit approval before installing.

If prefrontal.lessons contain experiences matching the current region, retain them for use in Phase 3.

Phase 3: Execution

3.1 Install

clawhub install <slug>

On failure, auto-switch to the next candidate. Max 2 switches, then stop and report.

3.2 Execution Plan

Read the installed Skill's SKILL.md and present to the user:

• Step summary
• Side-effect severity: 🟢 read-only 🟡 write 🔴 destructive 🔑 sensitive credentials ⚙️ shell commands
• Relevant prefrontal lessons (if any) — e.g., proactively check for a dependency known to be commonly missing

Reflex mode skips this step. Standard mode waits for user confirmation.

3.3 Execute

Follow the Skill's instructions to complete the task.

3.4 Failure Recovery

Switching candidates requires user consent. After all candidates fail, provide a full report with each failure reason and suggested remediation.

Phase 4: Learning & Cleanup

Execute regardless of success or failure.

4.1 Update Motor

Success: new_weight = old + (1 - old) 0.15 (1 / (1 + successes_in_last_7d))

Failure: new_weight = old * decay (task_mismatch: 0.4 / runtime: 0.6 / auth: 0.8 / dependency: 0.85 / api: 0.9)

New Skill initial weight = 0.5. Record skill_md_chars (SKILL.md character count) and version.

Create region if it doesn't exist. Update last_used.

4.2 Update Sensory

When this task was resolved via search (sensory miss), extract 2–4 signal words from the task description and merge into the corresponding region's pattern. Merge into existing patterns; do not create duplicates.

Entity Filtering (mandatory): Before writing signal words, strip all concrete entities — personal names, company names, place names, dates, numeric values, filenames, URLs, emails, etc. Retain only verbs and abstract nouns.

Example: user says "Look up Alice's Q3 sales report" → signals should be ["query", "sales", "report"], NOT ["Alice", "Q3"].

4.3 Update Prefrontal

Record structured lessons only in the following cases (no free-form):

// Type 1: Same failure type occurs 2+ times → dependency pre-check
{ "type": "dependency_warning", "region": "...", "key": "imagemagick", "action": "check_bin_before_install", "confidence": 0.6 }
// Type 2: Skill description does not match actual capability
{ "type": "skill_quality_warning", "slug": "xxx", "detail": "does not support batch ops", "confidence": 0.6 }
// Type 3: User environment is typically ready
{ "type": "env_ready", "region": "...", "key": "TODOIST_API_KEY", "confidence": 0.6 }

Confidence +0.1 each time validated (cap 1.0). Remove when < 0.3 during pruning.

4.4 Reflex Promotion

Set reflex: true when ALL conditions are met: success >= 5, weight >= 0.90, no write side effects.

Immediately reset reflex: false on any failure or version change.

4.5 Cleanup

Default: uninstall. clawhub uninstall

Suggest retention (when ALL met): success >= 3, weight >= 0.8, skill_md_chars < 8000.

Approved → keep installed, remove record from motor (transfers to OpenClaw native management). Declined → uninstall normally.

4.6 Pruning

• Motor: max 5 candidates per region / max 80 regions / remove effective_weight < 0.1
• Sensory: remove pattern when its region is pruned / max 10 signals per pattern
• Prefrontal: max 30 lessons / remove confidence < 0.3 / remove if linked region is pruned

Boundary Rules

1. Never interfere with long-term Skills.
2. Installation requires user confirmation (including reflex mode).
3. System dependency installation requires separate confirmation.
4. Write operations never enter reflex. Reflex locks version; version change auto-downgrades.
5. Max 2 candidate switches.
6. On cortex file corruption, degrade to direct ClawHub search; rebuild after task.
7. Read latest cortex file before writing; merge changes, never overwrite.
8. Single-session design; cortex data may be inconsistent under concurrent sessions.