Phantom Limb is a cognitive diagnostic tool that detects ghost references and silent dependencies that no longer exist in your live environment.
Install & Download
1. ClawHub CLI
The fastest way to install a skill directly from the registry.
npx clawhub@latest install phantom-limb
2. Manual Installation
Copy the skill folder to one of these locations
~/.openclaw/skills/ <project>/skills/ Priority: Workspace > Local > Bundled
3. Prompt Installation
Copy this prompt to OpenClaw to install it automatically.
Help me install phantom-limb using Clawhub. If Clawhub is not installed, install it first (npm i -g clawhub).
Prefer to download?
Get the raw skill files in a ZIP archive.
What is Phantom Limb?
Phantom Limb is a sophisticated diagnostic tool designed to uncover the negative space in your codebase. While traditional linters find syntax errors and broken imports, this skill identifies the subtle, invisible wires connecting your code to assumptions that are no longer true. It helps developers visualize the phantom architecture—the system the code thinks it is—versus the system that actually exists.
By analyzing the gap between intent and reality, this tool ensures your codebase remains lean and understandable. It is an essential component for any developer looking to expand their Openclaw Skills to include advanced technical debt management and structural analysis.
Phantom Limb Use Cases
- Onboarding new developers by identifying where the documentation and code assumptions diverge from reality.
- Post-refactor cleanup to find abandoned shims, re-exports, and legacy compatibility layers.
- Pre-deployment audits to ensure environment variables and API contracts match the current production state.
- Architecture reviews to quantify the gap between the intended design and the actual implementation.
How Phantom Limb Works
- Excavation: The skill scans all source files to build a reference graph, mapping environment reads, config lookups, and API calls.
- Reality Check: It cross-references these findings against the actual environment state, API schemas, and terminal import definitions.
- Phantom Classification: Detected issues are sorted into six distinct classes, including Environmental, Referential, Temporal, and Contractual phantoms.
- Exorcism Report: A prioritized list is generated, ranking phantoms by severity and blast radius with actionable fix suggestions.
Phantom Limb Setup
To integrate Phantom Limb into your workflow, ensure your environment is ready to execute Openclaw Skills. You can run the diagnostic directly via the CLI:
# Analyze the current directory for ghost dependencies
openclaw run phantom-limb --scan-all
# Generate a detailed exorcism report
openclaw run phantom-limb --report-format=detailed
Phantom Limb Data Schema & Taxonomy
The skill organizes its findings through a structured diagnostic taxonomy, ensuring clarity in the resulting report.
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| Phantom Class | Categorization of the ghost (e.g., Identity, Temporal, Contractual) |
| Severity | Impact level ranging from Vestigial to Critical |
| Blast Radius | Number of codepaths or modules affected by the phantom |
| Haunting Duration | Calculation of how long the reference has been obsolete |
| Resolution | Specific technical steps recommended to remove the phantom |
Phantom Limb Advanced Features
- Semantic analysis of identifier names vs. actual implementation behavior to find Identity Phantoms.
- Automated mapping of implicit ordering assumptions to detect race conditions in async life cycles.
- Outbound payload construction analysis against live API schemas to prevent silent data loss.
- Pure structural analysis with zero external dependencies, making it safe for local or air-gapped Openclaw Skills executions.
SKILL.md
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