What are Skills?

Skills are modular, shareable capability packages for OpenClaw agents. They extend your agent's abilities without requiring custom code for common tasks.

Skill Structure

my-skill/
├── manifest.json     # Skill metadata
├── tools/           # Tool definitions
│   └── main.js
├── prompts/         # Prompt templates
│   └── instructions.md
└── README.md        # Documentation

Creating a Custom Skill

manifest.json

{
  "name": "weather-skill",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "Get weather information",
  "author": "your-name",
  "tools": ["tools/main.js"],
  "prompts": ["prompts/instructions.md"],
  "dependencies": {
    "openweather-api": "^2.0.0"
  }
}

Tool Implementation

// tools/main.js
module.exports = {
  name: 'get_weather',
  description: 'Get current weather for a location',
  parameters: {
    location: { type: 'string', required: true }
  },
  handler: async ({ location }) => {
    const data = await weatherAPI.get(location);
    return {
      temp: data.temperature,
      conditions: data.description,
      humidity: data.humidity
    };
  }
};

Installing Skills

# From npm
openclaw skill install @openclaw/weather-skill

# From GitHub
openclaw skill install github:user/skill-repo

# Local development
openclaw skill link ./my-local-skill

Community Skills

Popular community-maintained skills:

@openclaw/gmail: Email management
@openclaw/calendar: Calendar integration
@openclaw/github: Repository management
@openclaw/notion: Notion workspace
@openclaw/spotify: Music control

Publishing Skills

# Validate skill structure
openclaw skill validate ./my-skill

# Publish to registry
openclaw skill publish ./my-skill

Security Considerations

Review skill code before installation
Check permissions requested by skills
Use verified/audited skills for production
Sandbox untrusted skills

Conclusion

The skills ecosystem accelerates agent development by providing reusable, tested capabilities. Contributing your own skills helps the entire community.