openclaw/docs/tools/creating-skills.md

title, sidebarTitle, summary, read_when

title	sidebarTitle	summary	read_when
Creating skills	Creating skills	Build, test, and publish custom SKILL.md workspace skills for your OpenClaw agents.	You are creating a new custom skill You need a quick starter workflow for SKILL.md-based skills You want to use Skill Workshop to propose a skill for agent review

Skills teach the agent how and when to use tools. Each skill is a directory containing a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter and markdown instructions. OpenClaw loads skills from several roots in a defined precedence order.

Create your first skill

Skills live in your workspace `skills/` folder. Create a directory for your new skill:

```bash
mkdir -p ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/hello-world
```

You can group skills in subfolders for organization — the skill is still
named by the `SKILL.md` frontmatter, not the folder path:

```bash
mkdir -p ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/personal/hello-world
# skill name is still "hello-world", invoked as /hello-world
```

Create `SKILL.md` inside the directory. The frontmatter defines metadata; the body gives the agent instructions.

```markdown
---
name: hello-world
description: A simple skill that prints a greeting.
---

# Hello World

When the user asks for a greeting, use the `exec` tool to run:

```bash
echo "Hello from your custom skill!"
```
```

Naming rules:
- Use lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens for `name`.
- Keep the directory name and frontmatter `name` aligned.
- `description` is shown to the agent and in slash-command discovery —
  keep it one line and under 160 characters.

```bash openclaw skills list ```

OpenClaw watches `SKILL.md` files under skills roots by default. If the
watcher is disabled or you are continuing an existing session, start a new
one so the agent receives the refreshed list:

```bash
# From chat — archive current session and start fresh
/new

# Or restart the gateway
openclaw gateway restart
```

Send a message that should trigger the skill:

```bash
openclaw agent --message "give me a greeting"
```

Or open a chat and ask the agent directly. Use `/skill hello-world` to
invoke it explicitly by name.

SKILL.md reference

Required fields

Field	Description
name	Unique slug using lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens
description	One-line description shown to the agent and in discovery output

Optional frontmatter keys

Field	Default	Description
user-invocable	true	Expose the skill as a user slash command
disable-model-invocation	false	Keep the skill out of the agent's system prompt (still runs via /skill)
command-dispatch	—	Set to tool to route the slash command directly to a tool, bypassing the model
command-tool	—	Tool name to invoke when command-dispatch: tool is set
command-arg-mode	raw	For tool dispatch, forwards the raw args string to the tool
homepage	—	URL shown as "Website" in the macOS Skills UI

For gating fields (requires.bins, requires.env, etc.) see Skills — Gating.

Using {baseDir}

Use {baseDir} in the skill body to reference files inside the skill directory without hardcoding paths:

Run the helper script at `{baseDir}/scripts/run.sh`.

Adding conditional activation

Gate your skill so it only loads when its dependencies are available:

---
name: gemini-search
description: Search using Gemini CLI.
metadata: { "openclaw": { "requires": { "bins": ["gemini"] }, "primaryEnv": "GEMINI_API_KEY" } }
---

| Key | Description | | --- | --- | | `requires.bins` | All binaries must exist on `PATH` | | `requires.anyBins` | At least one binary must exist on `PATH` | | `requires.env` | Each env var must exist in the process or config | | `requires.config` | Each `openclaw.json` path must be truthy | | `os` | Platform filter: `["darwin"]`, `["linux"]`, `["win32"]` | | `always` | Set `true` to skip all gates and always include the skill |

Full reference: [Skills — Gating](/tools/skills#gating).

Wire an API key to a skill entry in `openclaw.json`:

```json5
{
  skills: {
    entries: {
      "gemini-search": {
        enabled: true,
        apiKey: { source: "env", provider: "default", id: "GEMINI_API_KEY" },
      },
    },
  },
}
```

The key is injected into the host process for that agent turn only.
It does not reach the sandbox — see
[sandboxed env vars](/tools/skills-config#sandboxed-skills-and-env-vars).

Propose via Skill Workshop

For agent-drafted skills or when you want operator review before a skill goes live, use Skill Workshop proposals instead of writing SKILL.md directly.

# Propose a brand-new skill
openclaw skills workshop propose-create \
  --name "hello-world" \
  --description "A simple skill that prints a greeting." \
  --proposal ./PROPOSAL.md

# Propose an update to an existing skill
openclaw skills workshop propose-update hello-world \
  --proposal ./PROPOSAL.md \
  --description "Updated greeting skill"

Use --proposal-dir when the proposal includes support files:

openclaw skills workshop propose-create \
  --name "hello-world" \
  --description "A simple skill that prints a greeting." \
  --proposal-dir ./hello-world-proposal/

The directory must contain PROPOSAL.md. Support files can go in assets/, examples/, references/, scripts/, or templates/.

After review:

openclaw skills workshop inspect <proposal-id>
openclaw skills workshop apply <proposal-id>

See Skill Workshop for the full proposal lifecycle.

Publishing to ClawHub

Make sure `name`, `description`, and any `metadata.openclaw` gating fields are set. Add a `homepage` URL if you have a project page. The ClawHub skill documents the current publish command shape and required metadata:

```bash
openclaw skills install clawhub-publish
```

```bash clawhub publish ```

See [ClawHub — Publishing](/clawhub/publishing) for the full flow.

Best practices

- **Be concise** — instruct the model on *what* to do, not how to be an AI. - **Safety first** — if your skill uses `exec`, ensure prompts do not allow arbitrary command injection from untrusted input. - **Test locally** — use `openclaw agent --message "..."` before sharing. - **Use ClawHub** — browse community skills at [clawhub.ai](https://clawhub.ai) before building from scratch.

Related

Loading order, gating, allowlists, and SKILL.md format. Proposal queue for agent-drafted skills. Full `skills.*` config schema. Browse and publish skills on the public registry. Plugins can ship skills alongside the tools they document.