Openclaw Skills turns 5WHY into a strict, validation-first root-cause conversation that keeps drilling down until the true cause is confirmed.
Install & Download
1. ClawHub CLI
The fastest way to install a skill directly from the registry.
npx clawhub@latest install skill-5why-analysis
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 skill-5why-analysis 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 5WHY Root Cause Analysis Skill?
5WHY Root Cause Analysis Skill is a guided investigation workflow in Openclaw Skills that starts from an initial problem statement, asks one focused follow-up at a time, and validates every answer before moving deeper.
It is built for troubleshooting equipment failures, production anomalies, and quality defects where the goal is not only to identify a cause, but to prove whether a proposed countermeasure can actually prevent recurrence. The result is a tightly scoped analysis trace, a clear final judgment, and a practical action path that users can trust.
5WHY Root Cause Analysis Skill Use Cases
- Investigating machine alarms, shutdowns, pressure spikes, valve failures, or other equipment abnormalities in Openclaw Skills.
- Tracing quality defects such as surface scratches, bad batches, or process drift back to their true cause.
- Analyzing production anomalies, efficiency drops, and recurring stoppages that require structured root-cause reasoning.
- Separating subjective guesses from controllable, non-controllable, and normal-state factors before accepting an explanation.
- Creating a clean, auditable 5WHY conversation record for review, handoff, or corrective action planning.
How 5WHY Root Cause Analysis Skill Works
- Capture the user's initial issue and move directly into the first why question without debating the problem statement.
- Ask one tightly scoped follow-up question that stays aligned with the current branch of analysis.
- Collect the user's answer and run the mandatory three-layer validation: simplicity check, invalid-answer rejection, and ambiguity confirmation.
- If the answer passes validation, propose one concrete countermeasure that is specific and actionable.
- Judge whether that countermeasure can fully eliminate the same abnormality from recurring; if it cannot, classify the answer as an intermediate cause.
- Continue asking the next why from the current answer, repeating the loop until the cause is strong enough to be considered the root cause.
- Output the final root cause, the final countermeasure, and a chronological reconstruction of the full analysis trace.
5WHY Root Cause Analysis Skill Setup
- No external dependencies, APIs, or special preparation are required.
- Load the skill into your Openclaw Skills workspace or agent skill directory.
- Review the bundled reference documents when you need method background, validation examples, or output formatting guidance.
# No installation commands are required for the skill itself.
# Optional: inspect the bundled reference docs.
ls references/
5WHY Root Cause Analysis Skill Data Schema & Taxonomy
| Artifact / Section | Purpose | Structure | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial issue | Starting problem statement from the user | Single-sentence anomaly description | Triggers the first why question |
| Follow-up round | One step in the 5WHY loop | Question text + round position | Exactly one question per round |
| User answer | User-provided explanation for the current round | One primary idea, not a multi-cause bundle | Multi-factor answers must be split |
| Validation record | Required quality gate for each answer | Simplicity, invalid-answer rejection, ambiguity confirmation | Must be shown explicitly in the output |
| Countermeasure | Proposed action tied to the answer | One concrete, actionable response | Used to test root-cause status |
| Root-cause decision | Judgment on whether the answer is the true root cause | Yes/No decision with reason | Based on whether recurrence can be eliminated |
| Final conclusion | End-state summary | Root cause + final action | Presented only when the analysis terminates |
| Conversation trace | Chronological analysis artifact | Initial issue -> rounds -> validation -> decision -> conclusion | Text-only output unless the caller saves it |
Supporting reference files used by Openclaw Skills:
references/theory.md: method background and root-cause judgment standards.references/validation-examples.md: difficult answer patterns and validation behavior.references/tracking-template.md: trace formatting and final output structure.
5WHY Root Cause Analysis Skill Advanced Features
- Unbounded follow-up rounds: Openclaw Skills keeps iterating until the root cause is proven, not until a fixed number is reached.
- Mandatory three-layer validation after every answer, with explicit pass/fail visibility in the conversation.
- Ambiguity-safe behavior: when an answer cannot be judged reliably, the skill asks the user to confirm instead of guessing.
- Countermeasure-based judgment: root cause is accepted only when the proposed action can actually prevent the same abnormality from recurring.
- Chronological trace reconstruction for auditability, review, and downstream corrective action work.
- Reference-backed operation using theory, validation examples, and tracking templates to keep the analysis consistent inside Openclaw Skills.
SKILL.md
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