Extend Clawdbot AI assistant with skills. Learn how to create, install, and manage skills for your personal AI assistant.

Clawdbot Skills Overview

Clawdbot uses AgentSkills-compatible skill folders to teach the agent how to use tools. Each skill is a directory containing a SKILL.md with YAML frontmatter and instructions.

Clawdbot loads bundled skills plus optional local overrides, and filters them at load time based on environment, config, and binary presence.

Skill Locations and Precedence

Skills are loaded from three places:

Location	Description
Bundled skills	Shipped with the install (npm package or Clawdbot.app)
Managed/local skills	`~/.clawdbot/skills`
Workspace skills	`<workspace>/skills`

Precedence (highest to lowest):

<workspace>/skills
~/.clawdbot/skills
Bundled skills

You can configure extra skill folders via skills.load.extraDirs in ~/.clawdbot/clawdbot.json.

Per-Agent vs Shared Skills

In multi-agent setups:

Per-agent skills: Live in <workspace>/skills for that agent only
Shared skills: Live in ~/.clawdbot/skills and are visible to all agents

ClawHub (Install + Sync)

ClawHub is the public skills registry for Clawdbot. Browse at https://clawhub.com.

Common flows:

# Install a skill into your workspace
clawhub install <skill-slug>

# Update all installed skills
clawhub update --all

# Sync (scan + publish updates)
clawhub sync --all

By default, clawhub installs into ./skills under your current working directory.

Skill Format

SKILL.md must include at least:

---
name: my-skill
description: What this skill does
---

Instructions for the agent...

Optional Frontmatter Keys

Key	Description
`homepage`	URL surfaced as "Website" in the Skills UI
`user-invocable`	`true\|false` (default: true) - Expose as user slash command
`disable-model-invocation`	`true\|false` (default: false) - Exclude from model prompt
`command-dispatch`	`tool` - Bypass model and dispatch directly to a tool
`command-tool`	Tool name to invoke when `command-dispatch: tool`

Gating (Load-time Filters)

Filter skills at load time using metadata:

---
name: my-skill
description: My skill description
metadata: {"openclaw": {"requires": {"bins": ["uv"], "env": ["API_KEY"], "config": ["browser.enabled"]}}}
---

Gating Fields

Field	Description
`always: true`	Always include the skill
`requires.bins`	Required binaries
`requires.env`	Required environment variables
`requires.config`	Required config keys
`primaryEnv`	Primary environment variable for the skill

Config Overrides

Override skill settings in ~/.clawdbot/clawdbot.json:

{
  "skills": {
    "entries": {
      "my-skill": {
        "enabled": true,
        "env": {
          "API_KEY": "your-key"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Security Notes

Treat third-party skills as untrusted code
Read skills before enabling
Prefer sandboxed runs for untrusted inputs
Keep secrets out of prompts and logs

Plugins + Skills

Plugins can ship their own skills by listing skills directories in clawdbot.plugin.json. Plugin skills load when the plugin is enabled.

Skills Watcher (Auto-refresh)

Clawdbot watches skill directories for changes and auto-refreshes when skills are added, modified, or removed.

Next Steps

Clawdbot Slash Commands - Command reference
Clawdbot Tools - Tool configuration
Clawdbot Gateway - Gateway configuration

Clawdbot Skills

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