Severity: High (blocks JSON parsing/automation)

Environment:

• macOS (Mac-mini, Homebrew install: /opt/homebrew/bin/openclaw)
• openclaw version: 2026.2.25
• Terminal: zsh

Steps to reproduce:

1. Run the command: openclaw skills list --json | jq .
2. The command fails with a JSON parsing error, such as: parse error: Invalid numeric literal at line 2, column 0

Root cause:
The JSON output from openclaw skills list --json is malformed. It contains raw, unescaped ANSI terminal escape sequences within the string values for fields like emoji and description. These control characters are not valid in a JSON string and cause all standard JSON parsers to fail.

Example of corrupted JSON:

{
  "name": "himalaya",
  "emoji": "📧M-^_M-^S📧" 
}

The M-^_M-^S sequence represents unescaped terminal control characters.

Impact:
This defect prevents any form of programmatic use or automation of the skills list --json command. It is impossible to parse the output with standard tools like jq, Python's json library, or any other compliant JSON parser.

Expected behavior:
The command should output a clean, well-formed JSON array with properly escaped strings, suitable for machine parsing. For example:

[
  {
    "name": "himalaya",
    "emoji": "📧",
    ...
  }
]

Workarounds (temporary):
Using grep on the invalid JSON can provide some basic information, but this is not a sustainable solution:

# Count total skills
openclaw skills list --json | grep -c '"name":'

# Count eligible skills
openclaw skills list --json | grep -c '"eligible": *true'

I have created two files that demonstrate the issue, which I will attach in a follow-up comment:

• broken.json: A raw capture of the broken JSON output.
• broken-cat-v.txt: The output viewed with cat -v to make the control characters visible.