HIIC-skill-vetter

Practical skill vetting workflow for AI agents. Prioritizes clear yes/no risk judgments, concise conclusions, and business-aware risk tolerance before installing a skill.

A practical, business-aware vetting workflow for OpenClaw skills.

Goal: give a short, clear conclusion about whether a skill is safe to use, without over-penalizing normal capabilities like external API access, scheduled tasks, screenshots, or documented platform credentials.

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When to Use

Use this skill when:

• the user asks whether a skill is safe
• the user wants a quick vet before installing a skill
• the user wants a concise risk conclusion instead of a long report
• the user wants a portfolio-wide skill review

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Core Policy

Default stance

A skill is considered safe by default unless there is evidence of one of the following:

• privilege escalation
• hidden or unrelated sensitive-data access
• hidden external exfiltration
• dynamic execution of untrusted input
• obvious behavior beyond the claimed scope

Important calibration rules

The following do not automatically make a skill unsafe:

• documented external API access
• reading .env, tokens, cookies, or API keys that are clearly required for the skill's purpose
• cron / session / service / screenshot / browser state features
• package installation steps that are explicit and relevant
• platform/account integration when it is the point of the skill

These should usually be treated as:

• normal capability, or
• caution item, not rejection

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Judgment Standard

Output should be short and explicit.

Use this format:

text

SKILL VETTING REPORT
═══════════════════════════════════════
Skill: [name]
Source: [local / GitHub / ClawHub / other]
───────────────────────────────────────
RISKS:
• External Access: [Yes / No]
• Sensitive Access: [Yes / No / Required for stated purpose]
• Dynamic Execution: [Yes / No]
• Privilege Escalation: [Yes / No]
• Scope Mismatch: [Yes / No]
───────────────────────────────────────
RISK LEVEL: [🟢 LOW / 🟡 MEDIUM / 🟠 HIGH]
VERDICT: [✅ SAFE TO INSTALL / ⚠️ INSTALL WITH CAUTION / 🛑 HUMAN REVIEW RECOMMENDED]
NOTES: [1-3 short lines]
═══════════════════════════════════════

Keep the conclusion concise. Do not generate a long audit unless the user explicitly asks.

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Decision Rules

✅ SAFE TO INSTALL

Use when:

• no privilege escalation found
• no suspicious unrelated sensitive access found
• no hidden exfiltration found
• behavior matches the skill's stated purpose

Typical examples:

• weather skills
• summarizers
• search tools
• GitHub helpers
• browser helpers
• document tools

⚠️ INSTALL WITH CAUTION

Use when:

• the skill touches accounts, cookies, cloud resources, tokens, or publishing flows
• but that access is clearly related to the skill's purpose
• and there is no evidence of malicious or hidden behavior

Typical examples:

• social publishing tools
• cloud storage tools
• document platform integrations
• account-bound automation tools

🛑 HUMAN REVIEW RECOMMENDED

Use when:

• there is real ambiguity about scope
• or the skill reads sensitive material not clearly required
• or the skill contains dynamic execution, suspicious remote behavior, or unclear hidden logic

Do not use this level just because a skill uses tokens, APIs, cron, screenshots, or service config for legitimate reasons.

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What Actually Counts as High Risk

Treat these as strong warning signals:

• sudo, privileged system modification, or elevated install requirements
• eval, exec, bash -c, sh -c, subprocess execution with untrusted input
• reading unrelated secrets or private files without business justification
• hidden telemetry or undocumented outbound endpoints
• obvious mismatch between claim and implementation
• encoded/obfuscated payloads tied to execution or exfiltration

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Practical Review Workflow

1. Read SKILL.md
2. Review helper scripts and config
3. Identify whether sensitive/platform access is required for the stated purpose
4. Look for actual high-risk behavior
5. Return a short conclusion

If a repeatable scan helps, use:

bash

python3 vet_scan.py <skill-dir>
python3 vet_scan.py <skill-dir> --format json

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Review Philosophy

• Business-required permissions are not automatic red flags.
• A platform integration skill will naturally touch platform credentials.
• A browser automation skill will naturally touch cookies/session state.
• A cloud skill will naturally touch API keys and remote resources.
• The question is not “does it have permissions?”
• The question is: “does it use those permissions in a way that is expected, explicit, and limited to its purpose?”

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Remember

Aim for good judgment, not paranoia theater.

If there is no concrete sign of malicious or over-scoped behavior, do not overcall risk.