Local File Manager

Local File Manager Skill

This skill provides safe file I/O operations within the session's cwd. It is designed for roles that need to store outputs locally (no cloud sync).

Capabilities

• Read file: Get contents of a text file
• Write file: Create or overwrite a file
• Append file: Add content to existing file
• List files: Directory listing with filtering
• Delete file: Remove a file (with safety checks)
• Copy/Move: Simple file operations

When to Use

Role needs to:

• Save generated code/analysis to disk
• Read input documents (PDFs, text, etc.)
• Append logs or results
• Create output files in Markdown/JSON/CSV

Usage

# Read a file
file-manager --action read --path output.md

# Write content (from stdin or --content)
file-manager --action write --path result.json --content '{"status":"done"}'

# Append to file
file-manager --action append --path log.txt --content "Job completed at $(date)"

# List files in directory
file-manager --action list --dir . --pattern "*.md"

# Create directory
file-manager --action mkdir --dir reports

# Delete file (with confirmation)
file-manager --action delete --path old_file.txt

Safety

• Sandboxed to cwd: Cannot access files outside session's working directory
• Protected files: Cannot delete files starting with . or in ../
• Size limit: Max file size 10MB (configurable)
• Dry-run support: --dry-run shows what would happen

Integration with Roles

In role config, enable this skill:

plugins:
  allow:
    - local-file-manager
    - doc-parser

Then in the role's system prompt, guide usage:

When you finish analysis, write the result to a file:
  file-manager --action write --path summary.md --content "$YOUR_MARKDOWN"

Examples

Researcher saving analysis:

file-manager --action write --path analysis_$(date +%Y%m%d).md \
  --content "# Analysis\n\n## Summary\n..." 

Developer saving code:

file-manager --action write --path src/main.py --content "$CODE"

Automation appending log:

file-manager --action append --path /var/log/automation.log \
  --content "[$(date)] Task completed\n"

Error Handling

• If file doesn't exist for read: returns error code 1
• If path is outside cwd: denied
• If write fails (permission): returns error
• All errors logged to ~/.openclaw/logs/file-manager.log

Configuration

Environment variables:

• FILE_MANAGER_MAX_SIZE: Max file size in bytes (default 10485760)
• FILE_MANAGER_LOG: Path to operation log (default ~/.openclaw/logs/file-manager.log)
• FILE_MANAGER_DRY_RUN: Set to "1" to only simulate operations