Skills for OpenClaw Agents

Skills are like cheat sheets for your AI agent. They teach it specific tasks so it can handle stuff without you re-explaining every time.

How Skills Work

Each skill is a folder with a SKILL.md file at the root. This file tells the agent what to do in clear steps.

~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/
└── my-skill/
    ├── SKILL.md
    └── scripts/ (optional)

A Sample Skill

# SKILL.md — Email Outreach

## Description
Send professional outreach emails via SMTP. Use when: user asks to send
emails to leads, prospects, or contacts.

## Prerequisites
- `SMTP_HOST`, `SMTP_PORT`, `SMTP_USER`, `SMTP_PASS` in env
- `himalaya` CLI installed (`brew install himalaya`)

## Steps

1. Load recipient context from $LEADS_PATH.
2. Generate personalized message using template.
3. Send via himalaya.
4. Log the send to leads/sent-log.csv.

Agent follows these steps exactly, no guessing.

Skill Lifecycle

1. Install — copy skills to ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/
2. Active — agent picks them up next session
3. Update — pull new version from ClawHub
4. Disable — rename dir with _ prefix
5. Publish — package and push to ClawHub

Installing Skills

Use the clawhub CLI:

# Install clawhub CLI
npm install -g clawhub

# Search for skills
clawhub search email

# Install a skill
clawhub install himalaya

# Install specific version
clawhub install himalaya@2.1.0

# List installed skills
clawhub list

# Update all skills to latest
clawhub update

# Update specific skill
clawhub update gh-issues

Skills install automatically on next message.

Writing a Skill

Basic structure:

# SKILL.md — Camera Snapshot

## Description
Capture frames or clips from RTSP/ONVIF cameras. Use when user asks for
camera snapshot, doorbell image, or security feed capture.

## Prerequisites
- `ffmpeg` installed
- Camera URLs in TOOLS.md under "Cameras" section

## Steps

1. Parse camera URLs.
2. Capture frame with ffmpeg.
3. Return the image path.

Agent will follow these steps exactly.

Skill Best Practices

• Be specific in descriptions.
• List prerequisites upfront.
• Use absolute paths.
• Put ref docs in references/.

Skills vs. Hardcoded Tools

Skills are instructions; tools are code. They work together:

| | Skills | Tools | |---|---|---| | What they are | Instructions (Markdown) | Executable functions | | How they're added | Copy a dir | Register in tool config | | Who writes them | Anyone | Developers | | When to use | Workflows with human-like decisions | Deterministic ops | | Example | "Send an outreach email" | web_search(query) |

Publishing Your Skill

To share your skill:

# Initialize a clawhub package
cd ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/my-skill
clawhub init

# Publish
clawhub publish

# Update published skill
clawhub publish --bump patch

Published skills are versioned, searchable, and installable.

Ecosystem Effect

Skills make your agent smarter. A workspace with 10-15 well-written skills means the agent handles tasks without you explaining context.

Browse the NEPA AI Skill Pack at axon.nepa-ai.com/shop/openclaw-skill-pack.

Install once. Your agent gets smarter immediately.