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Agent skill

Imsg

by openclaw in openclaw/openclaw

Use the imsg CLI from OpenClaw agents for iMessage/SMS DMs, groups, replies, reactions, polls, watching, and private-API actions.

MITAuto-check passedProductivity & Automation

Install Imsg

skills CLI
$ npx skills add openclaw/openclaw --skill imsg -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install openclaw/openclaw imsg --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/extensions/imessage/skills/imsg .claude/skills/imsg && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
imsg
GitHub stars
392k
Token cost
~2.7k tokens
SKILL.md length
1,029 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
93
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Use the imsg CLI from OpenClaw agents for iMessage/SMS DMs, groups, replies, reactions, polls, watching, and private-API actions.

  • Works in 5 steps: Resolve the conversation first. → Choose DM, existing group, or new group. → Prefer an available message action;… → …
  • Tasks that involve Messaging and chat bots
  • SKILL.md covers Agent Flow, Host Requirements, Resolve Targets and Capability Choice, plus 6 more sections
  • Calls jq

What it does

Imsg is an agent skill from openclaw/openclaw. Use the imsg CLI from OpenClaw agents for iMessage/SMS DMs, groups, replies, reactions, polls, watching, and private-API actions.

Its SKILL.md is about 2.7k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Productivity & Automation, covering Messaging and chat bots. It works with React. The repository describes itself as: The AI that really does things. Any OS. Any Platform. The lobster way. 🦞. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Tasks that involve Messaging and chat bots

Example prompts

  • “/imsg”

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Resolve the conversation first.
  2. Choose DM, existing group, or new group.
  3. Prefer an available message action; otherwise pick the lowest-capability imsg command that preserves the requested semantics.
  4. Confirm any send or visible state change unless the user already gave exact recipient, content, and action.
  5. Execute with stable identifiers: prefer --chat-id for normal sends/watch/history and --chat chat GUID for bridge actions.

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 1eb5970. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • jq

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Imsg loads about 2.7k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 34 tokens; SKILL.md has 1,029 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~34
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~2.7k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from openclaw/openclaw at commit 1eb5970, republished under its MIT licence (© openclaw). 1,029 words, ~2,713 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/imsg/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
imsg
description
Use the imsg CLI from OpenClaw agents for iMessage/SMS DMs, groups, replies, reactions, polls, watching, and private-API actions.
homepage
https://imsg.to

imsg

Use the generic message tool first for actions that its current iMessage schema exposes. Use imsg when the task needs local Messages.app history, target discovery, watching, or an administrative/private-API capability that is not exposed by message.

Do not use this skill for Telegram, Signal, WhatsApp, Discord, Slack, or for replying inside the current OpenClaw conversation when the configured channel already routes the reply.

Agent Flow

  1. Resolve the conversation first.
  2. Choose DM, existing group, or new group.
  3. Prefer an available message action; otherwise pick the lowest-capability imsg command that preserves the requested semantics.
  4. Confirm any send or visible state change unless the user already gave exact recipient, content, and action.
  5. Execute with stable identifiers: prefer --chat-id for normal sends/watch/history and --chat chat GUID for bridge actions.

Never infer a recipient from a casual name alone when several chats or handles could match. Show the matched display name, handle(s), group participants, and message text/action before sending.

Host Requirements

  • macOS 14+ with Messages.app signed in for send/react/bridge actions.
  • Private API mode is strongly encouraged for OpenClaw iMessage. It unlocks replies, precise tapbacks, effects, polls, attachment replies, read/typing actions, and group management. Basic mode is a fallback for reads plus plain text/file send.
  • Full Disk Access for the process context that runs imsg or OpenClaw; reads fail without Messages DB access.
  • Automation permission for Messages.app when using public send.
  • Accessibility permission for the process context that runs public imsg react; it uses System Events UI automation. Bridge tapback uses private API instead.
  • Optional Contacts permission for contact-name resolution.
  • SMS sends require Text Message Forwarding from the user's iPhone to this Mac.
  • Linux reads a copied chat.db only; it cannot send, react, launch Messages.app, mark read, or type.

Resolve Targets

Use --json reads. Output is newline-delimited JSON; use jq -s when jq is available, or consume one object per line directly.

bash
imsg chats --limit 25 --json | jq -s
imsg search --query "dinner" --match contains --json | jq -s
imsg history --chat-id 42 --limit 20 --attachments --json | jq -s
imsg group --chat-id 42 --json

Target rules:

  • DM to a phone/email: use imsg send --to when the user gave an exact handle, or after a single unambiguous chat match.
  • Existing DM thread: imsg send --chat-id <id> is safer than re-resolving a name.
  • Existing group: inspect with imsg group --chat-id <id> --json; send with --chat-id, bridge with the chat GUID from group.
  • New group: use chat-create only when the user explicitly asked to create a group or no existing group matches.
  • Ambiguous group names: confirm participants, not just display name.
  • SMS: use --service sms only when requested or when iMessage fallback is not desired. SMS relay requires Text Message Forwarding.

Do not make jq a hard prerequisite for the skill; it is only a convenient formatter for examples.

Capability Choice

Use imsg standard commands when the current message schema does not cover the operation or when local history is needed:

  • Read/list/search/watch: chats, group, history, search, watch
  • Basic text/file send: send
  • Standard tapback to most recent incoming message in a chat: react

Use the private API bridge for the native iMessage actions OpenClaw users normally expect:

  • Rich replies, text formatting, effects, subjects, multipart sends
  • Native Apple Messages polls and poll votes
  • Tapback by message GUID or tapback removal
  • Edit, unsend, delete, notify anyways
  • Read receipts, typing indicators, bridge event watch
  • Group create/name/photo/member/leave/delete/mark actions
  • Account, whois, nickname checks

For OpenClaw channel setup, check bridge availability early:

bash
imsg status --json

If the host supports bridge actions but Messages is not injected yet, ask before running imsg launch. It kills and relaunches Messages.app to inject the bridge, so treat it as a visible state change:

bash
imsg launch
imsg status --json

If SIP, library validation, private entitlement checks, or missing selectors still block the capability, explain that the requested private-API action is unavailable on this host and offer the closest non-bridge action, if one exists. Do not silently downgrade a threaded reply, effect, subject, poll, or GUID-targeted tapback into a plain send/react.

Show full SKILL.md (404 more words)Show less

DM Scenarios

Exact handle, basic send:

bash
imsg send --to "+14155551212" --text "On my way" --service auto

Known DM thread:

bash
imsg send --chat-id 42 --text "On my way"
imsg send --chat-id 42 --file /path/to/photo.jpg

Force channel only when the user asks:

bash
imsg send --to "+14155551212" --text "green bubble" --service sms
imsg send --to "+14155551212" --text "iMessage only" --service imessage --no-sms-fallback

Threaded reply, formatting, effects, or attachment reply:

bash
imsg send-rich --chat 'iMessage;-;+15551234567' \
  --reply-to <message-guid> --text "reply text"
imsg send-rich --chat 'iMessage;-;+15551234567' --text 'hello world' \
  --format '[{"start":0,"length":5,"styles":["bold"]}]'
imsg send-rich --chat 'iMessage;-;+15551234567' --text "boom" --effect impact
imsg send-attachment --chat 'iMessage;-;+15551234567' \
  --reply-to <message-guid> --file /path/to/file.jpg

Formatting ranges are UTF-16 positions. Supported styles include bold, italic, underline, and strikethrough; use --format-file for generated JSON.

Group Scenarios

Inspect before acting:

bash
imsg group --chat-id 42 --json
imsg history --chat-id 42 --limit 20 --json | jq -s

Send to an existing group:

bash
imsg send --chat-id 42 --text "Works for me"

Bridge reply or poll in an existing group:

bash
imsg send-rich --chat 'iMessage;+;chat0000' \
  --reply-to <message-guid> --text "replying in thread"
imsg poll send --chat 'iMessage;+;chat0000' \
  --question "Dinner?" --option "Pizza" --option "Sushi"

Create or mutate groups only on explicit request:

bash
imsg chat-create --addresses '+15551111111,+15552222222' --name 'Crew' --text 'gm'
imsg chat-name --chat 'iMessage;+;chat0000' --name 'Renamed'
imsg chat-photo --chat 'iMessage;+;chat0000' --file /path/to/group.jpg
imsg chat-add-member --chat 'iMessage;+;chat0000' --address +15553333333
imsg chat-remove-member --chat 'iMessage;+;chat0000' --address +15553333333
imsg chat-leave --chat 'iMessage;+;chat0000'
imsg chat-delete --chat 'iMessage;+;chat0000'
imsg chat-mark --chat 'iMessage;+;chat0000' --read

Group mutations are highly visible. Confirm the exact group and participant list before changing membership, name, photo, read state, leaving, or deleting.

Reactions and Replies

Public react is limited: it reacts to the most recent incoming message in the chat.

bash
imsg react --chat-id 42 --reaction like
imsg react --chat-id 42 --reaction love
imsg react --chat-id 42 --reaction dislike
imsg react --chat-id 42 --reaction laugh
imsg react --chat-id 42 --reaction emphasis
imsg react --chat-id 42 --reaction question

For a specific message GUID or removal, use bridge tapback:

bash
imsg tapback --chat 'iMessage;-;+15551234567' --message <message-guid> --kind love
imsg tapback --chat 'iMessage;-;+15551234567' --message <message-guid> --kind love --remove

Use send-rich --reply-to <message-guid> for threaded replies. Confirm the referenced message if the user says "that" or "the previous one".

Polls

Native Apple Messages polls require the bridge. Creation needs at least two --option values. Voting requires one of --option-id, --option-index, or --option.

Messages renders only the options on a poll balloon, so current imsg poll send echoes --question as a best-effort plain caption after the poll. Use --comment to override that caption. Do not retry automatically when only the caption fails: the poll may already be delivered.

bash
imsg poll send --chat 'iMessage;-;+15551234567' \
  --question "Dinner?" --option "Pizza" --option "Sushi" --comment "Vote by 5pm"
imsg poll send --chat 'iMessage;+;chat0000' --reply-to <message-guid> \
  --question "Approve?" --option "Yes" --option "No"
imsg poll vote --chat 'iMessage;+;chat0000' \
  --poll <poll-message-guid> --option-id <option-id>

Find poll IDs and options with:

bash
imsg history --chat-id 42 --limit 20 --json | jq -s '.[] | select(.poll != null) | {guid, poll}'

history and watch backfill a title-less inbound native poll's poll.question from its clean caption row. Poll vote rows are poll events, not tapbacks; watch --reactions is not required to see them.

Watch and Long-Running Agents

For a short one-off wait, use watch:

bash
imsg watch --chat-id 42 --since-rowid 9000 --json
imsg watch --chat-id 42 --attachments --convert-attachments --json
imsg watch --chat-id 42 --reactions --json
imsg watch --chat-id 42 --bb-events --json

--since-rowid is exclusive. Without it, watch starts at the newest row. watch uses filesystem events plus a low-frequency polling fallback, so it can catch up after missed SQLite sidecar events. Poll objects appear without --reactions.

For a daemon or multi-chat integration, use imsg rpc. It speaks JSON-RPC 2.0 over stdin/stdout. Inspect imsg status --json for rpc_methods before using newer bridge or poll methods.

Safety Rules

  • Confirm recipient, chat, and content before every send unless the user's request already contains exact values.
  • Confirm visible state changes: read receipts, typing indicators, edits, unsends, deletes, poll votes, tapbacks, group membership, group name/photo, leaving/deleting chats.
  • Never send to unknown numbers or ambiguous contact-name matches without approval.
  • Confirm attachments exist and are the intended files.
  • Prefer E.164 phone numbers; use --region US or another region only when needed for local formats.
  • Use bridge actions for bridge-only semantics, but confirm visible state changes and destructive actions first.

© openclaw, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in extensions/imessage/skills/imsg of openclaw/openclaw.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 1eb5970

Compare with similar skills

Imsg next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Imsg compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Imsg this skillopenclaw/openclaw392k—~2.7kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Slackhuangruiteng/CS-Notes4k10 repos~578Automated safety check: PassMIT
Bluebubblestrpc-group/trpc-agent-go1.8k5 repos~768Automated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Instagram Skillsupreme-gg-gg/instagram-cli2.2k—~1.4kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Tinyplacetinyhumansai/tiny.place138—~5.1kAutomated safety check: PassGPL-3.0-or-later
Google Chatsanjay3290/ai-skills431—~1.2kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0

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Works with

Categories

Questions about Imsg

What does Imsg do?

Use the imsg CLI from OpenClaw agents for iMessage/SMS DMs, groups, replies, reactions, polls, watching, and private-API actions. Imsg is an agent skill from openclaw/openclaw. Use the imsg CLI from OpenClaw agents for iMessage/SMS DMs, groups, replies, reactions, polls, watching, and private-API actions.

When should I use Imsg?

Imsg fits situations like: tasks that involve Messaging and chat bots.

How do I install Imsg in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add openclaw/openclaw --skill imsg -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (extensions/imessage/skills/imsg in openclaw/openclaw) into .claude/skills/imsg in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Imsg in Codex?

Run `npx skills add openclaw/openclaw --skill imsg -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (extensions/imessage/skills/imsg in openclaw/openclaw) into .agents/skills/imsg in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Imsg in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add openclaw/openclaw --skill imsg -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/imsg, .gemini/skills/imsg, .github/skills/imsg and .opencode/skills/imsg in your project.

What does Imsg need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Imsg needs the command-line tools its instructions call (jq).

Does Imsg access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Imsg safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Imsg use?

Imsg is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Imsg use?

About 2.7k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 11k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Imsg?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Imsg: Slack (huangruiteng/CS-Notes, 4k stars), Bluebubbles (trpc-group/trpc-agent-go, 1.8k stars), Instagram Skill (supreme-gg-gg/instagram-cli, 2.2k stars) and Tinyplace (tinyhumansai/tiny.place, 138 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Imsg?

openclaw (a GitHub organization) maintains it in openclaw/openclaw, which has 391,610 GitHub stars. The repository holds 93 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 8, 2026.

Source: openclaw/openclaw on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.