What You'll Learn: Skills are what transform OpenClaw from a chat interface into a genuine AI agent. This guide covers everything: understanding the skills architecture, installing 100+ pre-built skills from ClawHub, configuring them correctly, building your own custom skills from scratch, and publishing them for the community. By the end, you'll automate tasks that previously required hours of manual work.
Understanding OpenClaw Skills
Think of skills as apps you install on a smartphone. OpenClaw's base installation is like a new phone — functional but limited. Each skill you add gives your agent a new capability: send emails, search the web, control smart home devices, query databases, post on social media, or execute code. The magic is that these capabilities combine — your agent can research online, write a report, email it to you, and add a follow-up to your calendar, all from one instruction.
📦 Official Skills
Maintained by the OpenClaw team. Gmail, Calendar, GitHub, Notion, Slack — guaranteed compatibility and security scanning.
🌐 Community Skills
Built by users, published to ClawHub marketplace. VirusTotal-scanned. Over 300+ skills available covering every use case.
🔧 Custom Skills
You build for your specific needs. Private, never published. Perfect for proprietary APIs or internal tools.
Installing Skills from ClawHub
The 10 Most Popular Skills in 2026
skill-gmail
Read, send, organize, search Gmail
2.1M installs
skill-calendar
Google Calendar full integration
1.8M installs
skill-web-search
Real-time internet search and scraping
1.6M installs
skill-files
Read, write, organize local files
1.4M installs
skill-notion
Sync with Notion databases and pages
890K installs
How to Install Any Skill
Search ClawHub for the skill
Browse clawhub.io or search directly from terminal
Install the skill
Configure credentials
Restart agent and test
Building Your First Custom Skill
Pre-built skills cover common use cases. But the real power of OpenClaw is building custom skills for your unique needs — connecting to your company's internal API, automating your specific workflow, or integrating a niche service nobody else has built a skill for yet.
Skill Structure (The Anatomy)
// skills/my-weather-skill/index.js
module.exports = {
name: 'my-weather-skill',
description: 'Gets current weather for any city',
version: '1.0.0',
// What your skill can do
actions: {
getWeather: {
description: 'Get weather for a city',
parameters: {
city: { type: 'string', required: true }
},
async execute({ city }) {
const res = await fetch(
`https://api.weather.com/v1/${city}?key=${process.env.WEATHER_KEY}`
);
return await res.json();
}
}
}
};
That's it! Once this file exists in your skills directory and you restart, your agent automatically knows it can "get weather for any city" — no additional configuration needed. The AI understands the action description and knows when to call it.
5-Step Skill Development Process
1 Define Your Use Case
What manual task do you do repeatedly? "I check our company Slack for customer complaints every morning" → build a Slack monitoring skill with alert thresholds.
2 Scaffold the Skill
openclaw create-skill my-skill-name
This generates the correct directory structure and boilerplate so you start with valid code.
3 Implement the Actions
Write the actual API calls and data processing logic in index.js. Keep each action focused on one thing — easier to debug and reuse.
4 Test in Development Mode
openclaw dev --skill my-skill-name
Hot-reload mode — changes apply instantly without full restart. Essential for rapid iteration.
5 Deploy and Enable
openclaw enable my-skill-name
Your agent now has the new capability. Test by asking it to perform the task in natural language.
Building Advanced Automation Workflows
Real-World Workflow Examples
📊 Weekly Report Automation
Every Friday at 5 PM: pull metrics from Gmail (replies, open rates) + Notion (tasks completed) → generate summary → post to #weekly-wins Slack channel. Zero manual effort.
"schedule": "0 17 * * 5"
🎯 Lead Qualification Pipeline
New contact email arrives → agent researches their company online → scores lead quality → updates CRM → schedules follow-up call if high-quality lead. Runs 24/7 even while you sleep.
🔔 Smart Alert System
Monitor competitor websites every 2 hours → AI analyzes for significant changes (new features, pricing changes) → sends Telegram alert only if genuinely important. No noise, just signal.
Chaining Skills Together
// workflows/smart-inbox.js
module.exports = {
name: 'smart-inbox',
trigger: { type: 'email', from: '*' },
async execute(agent, email) {
// Step 1: Classify the email
const type = await agent.ai.classify(email.subject, [
'urgent', 'newsletter', 'meeting', 'invoice', 'other'
]);
// Step 2: Take action based on type
if (type === 'meeting') {
await agent.calendar.extractAndSchedule(email.body);
} else if (type === 'invoice') {
await agent.notion.addToDatabase('Invoices', email);
} else if (type === 'urgent') {
await agent.telegram.notify('Urgent email: ' + email.subject);
}
}
};
Advanced: Self-Building Skills
OpenClaw's Most Impressive Feature
Users report something remarkable: you can ask your OpenClaw agent to build new skills for itself. "I need you to build a skill that monitors our Shopify store for low inventory and alerts me on Telegram." The agent analyzes the requirement, writes the code, installs the skill, and tests it — all within minutes.
Tips for Reliable Self-Built Skills
✅ Be Specific in Requirements
Instead of "build a monitoring skill", say "build a skill that checks our-api.com/inventory endpoint every hour and sends a Telegram message when any item has quantity under 10".
✅ Always Review Generated Code
Before enabling a self-built skill, review the code in the skills directory. AI-generated code is usually good but occasionally has logic errors.
✅ Test with Real Data First
Run self-built skills in dry-run mode (no side effects) before enabling them on real production data.
✅ Use VPN07 for Reliable API Access
Skills connecting to external APIs need consistent network performance. VPN07's 1000Mbps connection prevents the timeout errors that derail skill execution mid-workflow.
Publishing Your Skills to ClawHub
Publication Checklist
# Publish to ClawHub
openclaw publish skill-name
VPN07 — Essential for Skill Workflows
Skills that call external APIs need reliable, fast network connections. When your workflow chains 5 skills together, a network hiccup at any point breaks the entire chain. VPN07's 1000Mbps bandwidth and 10-year proven infrastructure ensures every skill API call completes successfully — especially critical for production workflows running 24/7.
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Supercharge Your Skills with VPN07
Every API call your skills make needs fast, reliable connectivity. VPN07's 1000Mbps network with 70+ global servers ensures your OpenClaw automation never gets throttled or blocked. Trusted by developers for 10 years at just $1.5/month.