AI Skills Development Guide - Build Custom Skills for OpenClaw

What are AI Skills?

AI Skills are modular capabilities that extend OpenClaw's functionality. Each skill is a self-contained package with:

• A SKILL.md file defining skill behavior
• Configuration and tools
• Documentation and examples
• Optional: Scripts, tests, and assets

Skill Structure

my-skill/
├── SKILL.md          # Skill definition (required)
├── README.md         # Documentation
├── package.json      # Dependencies
├── lib/
│   └── tool.js       # Custom tools
├── scripts/
│   └── setup.js      # Installation scripts
└── examples/
    └── example.js    # Usage examples

Creating Your First Skill

Step 1: Initialize Skill Directory

mkdir my-skill
cd my-skill
npm init -y

Step 2: Create SKILL.md

# My First Skill

## Description
A brief description of what this skill does.

## Tools
- `tool_name`: What the tool does

## Usage
When to activate this skill and how to use it.

Step 3: Install Your Skill

openclaw skill install ./my-skill

Best Practices

• Keep skills focused: One skill, one purpose
• Write clear documentation: Others should understand it quickly
• Handle errors gracefully: Provide helpful error messages
• Test thoroughly: Include test cases for critical functionality
• Version control: Use semantic versioning (v1.0.0, v1.1.0)

Publishing Skills

Share your skills with the community via ClawHub:

1. Register at clawhub.com
2. Push your skill to GitHub
3. Publish using: clawhub publish
4. Share the skill URL with others

Example Skills

Explore popular skills for inspiration:

• weather: Get weather forecasts without API keys
• agent-browser: Web automation and scraping
• skill-creator: Tool for building new skills
• feishu-doc: Feishu document integration

Advanced Topics

• Coding agents comparison
• Custom tool development
• Skill dependencies and composition
• Testing and debugging skills