portable-tools

What This Skill Does

The portable-tools skill provides a rigorous framework for building cross-device automation and CLI utilities. It is designed to solve the common "it works on my machine" problem by enforcing strict abstraction layers. Instead of relying on hardcoded paths, specific username strings, or singular environment assumptions, this skill guides you through the process of writing code that is inherently environment-agnostic. By following the 'Three Questions' methodology, you ensure that your OpenClaw scripts can handle variations in macOS versus Linux filesystem structures, changing account naming conventions, and fluctuating service identifiers. It transforms brittle scripts into robust software.

Installation

To add this capability to your agent, run the following command in your terminal:

clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/tunaissacoding/portable-tools

Once installed, the skill integrates into your development workflow, providing validation logic and helper functions to manage configuration discovery and error handling automatically.

Use Cases

1. Environment Migration: Moving authentication scripts from a primary development workstation to a headless server where pathing and user-level keychain access differ significantly.
2. Multi-User Environments: Developing scripts that need to function across different developer machines where naming conventions for local services like 'claude-cli' or 'oauth-provider' vary.
3. Failure Resiliency: Creating robust automation that handles missing configuration files or ambiguous keychain entries by utilizing advanced fallback chains and explicit command definitions.

Example Prompts

1. "Analyze my current bash script and apply the portable-tools methodology to replace hardcoded paths with discovery logic."
2. "Help me write a test case for this configuration loader that simulates a 'wrong-name' keychain account to ensure the fallback chain triggers correctly."
3. "Refactor my tool to use explicit command arguments rather than implicit search patterns for my security keychain lookups."

Tips & Limitations

• Tip: Always prioritize Pattern 1 (Explicit Over Implicit). Even if an implicit command feels faster, it introduces ambiguity that scales poorly.
• Tip: When debugging, use the 'Three Questions' framework to document your Before/After state. This is vital for maintaining audit trails.
• Limitation: This skill does not automatically refactor legacy code. It provides the patterns and validation logic, but the developer must manually implement these abstractions.
• Limitation: It is strictly a methodology-enforcement skill; it does not perform external network calls itself.