Setup & Installation
Or with the ClawHub CLI, for registry-managed skill folders outside a full OpenClaw workspace:
What This Skill Does
coala-client is a CLI tool for chatting with OpenAI-compatible LLMs and connecting to MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers. It supports importing CWL toolsets as MCP servers, loading skills into context, and optionally running shell commands in a sandbox.
Combines LLM chat, MCP server management, and skill loading in a single CLI without requiring separate tooling for each.
When to use it
- Chat with a local Ollama model without an API key
- Import a CWL toolset and call its tools from the command line
- Load a skill file into chat context mid-session
- Switch between OpenAI, Gemini, and Ollama providers in one tool
- Run a single prompt against MCP tools with coala ask
Example Workflow
Here's how your AI assistant might use this skill in practice.
User asks: how do I call an MCP tool for gene variant lookup
- 1Run coala init to create config files
- 2Import the gene-variant CWL toolset with coala mcp-import
- 3Run coala mcp-list gene-variant to inspect available tools
- 4Call the tool directly with coala mcp-call gene-variant.ncbi_datasets_gene --args '{"data":[{"gene":"TP53","taxon":"human"}'
Tool returns gene data for TP53 in human without starting a full chat session
Requirements
Accounts, API keys, or tools you or your AI assistant may need to set up while using this skill.