Build Custom Skills
Create, test, and publish your own OpenClaw skills.
What is a Skill?
Skills are directories containing a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter and instructions. They follow the AgentSkills convention — an open standard for AI coding assistants.
Skill Structure
my-skill/ └── SKILL.md
The SKILL.md file:
---
name: my-awesome-skill
description: Does something awesome for your agent
---
# My Awesome Skill
## Instructions
When the user asks to do something awesome, follow these steps:
1. First, check the current context
2. Then, perform the awesome action
3. Report the results
## Notes
- This skill requires internet access
- Use {baseDir} to reference files in the skill folderOptional Frontmatter Keys
homepage URL surfaced as "Website" in the macOS Skills UI
user-invocable: true|false When true (default), the skill is exposed as a user slash command
disable-model-invocation: true|false When true, excluded from model prompt (still available via user invocation)
command-dispatch: tool Bypasses the model and dispatches directly to a tool
Install Locations
Per-agent (highest priority): <workspace>/skills/my-skill/SKILL.md Shared across agents: ~/.openclaw/skills/my-skill/SKILL.md Extra dirs (lowest priority, via config): skills.load.extraDirs in openclaw.json
Publishing to ClawHub
Share your skill with the community:
npx clawhub@latest sync --all npx clawhub@latest publish my-awesome-skill
Published skills appear on ClawHub and can be installed by anyone.
Security Notes
Treat third-party skills as untrusted code. Read them before enabling.
Skills with env and apiKey inject secrets into the host process. Keep secrets out of prompts and logs.