OpenClaw Skills: Complete Guide to 13,000+ Skills

Skills are what transform OpenClaw from a generic chatbot into a specialized personal assistant that knows how to manage your Gmail, book trains, monitor your portfolio, and write GST invoices. Understanding how skills work — and how to find, install, and write them — is the most important step after getting OpenClaw running.

What Skills Are

A skill is a markdown file (.md) that lives in your ~/clawd/skills/ directory. When OpenClaw processes your message, it reads all active skills and includes them in its system context. Each skill provides:

1. Identity — what the skill is called and what it does
2. Trigger phrases — examples of messages that should activate this skill
3. Instructions — detailed natural language rules for how to behave
4. Tool access — which tools the skill uses (email, calendar, file system, HTTP, etc.)

Here is what a simple skill file looks like:

---
name: morning-briefing
description: Delivers a personalized morning briefing with weather, news, and calendar
triggers:
  - "morning briefing"
  - "good morning"
  - "what's on today"
tools:
  - http_get
  - google_calendar
  - memory_read
---

## Morning Briefing Skill

When the user asks for a morning briefing or says good morning:

1. Fetch current weather for the user's saved location using the wttr.in API
2. Read the user's calendar events for today from Google Calendar
3. Fetch the top 5 headlines from the user's preferred news source
4. Read the user's memory file for any pending tasks or reminders
5. Format everything into a clean, concise briefing under 300 words
6. Sign off with a motivational line

Keep the tone warm and personal. Use IST timezone for all times.

The agent reads this file and knows exactly how to handle morning briefing requests. Skills are human-readable, auditable, and modifiable — you can edit any skill to customize its behavior for your preferences.

ClawHub: The Skills Registry

ClawHub (clawhub.ai) is the community-maintained registry for OpenClaw skills. As of March 2026, it hosts 13,729 skills across categories:

| Category | Skills Count | Examples | |---|---|---| | Productivity | 3,240+ | Gmail, Calendar, Task Manager, Notes | | Communication | 1,890+ | Slack, Discord, WhatsApp templates, Email drafting | | Development | 2,100+ | GitHub, Jira, CI/CD monitoring, Code review | | Finance | 980+ | Stock alerts, Invoice generator, Expense tracker | | Smart Home | 640+ | Home Assistant, IoT triggers, Device control | | India-specific | 310+ | IRCTC, UPI, BSE/NSE, GST, Cricket, Indian news | | Health & Wellness | 420+ | Reminders, Water intake, Step counter | | Education | 550+ | Flashcard generator, Study planner, Quiz mode |

You browse ClawHub at clawhub.ai, search by keyword or category, and install with the CLI.

Installing Skills: Step-by-Step

Basic installation

# Install a single skill
clawhub install gmail-manager

# Install multiple skills at once
clawhub install gmail-manager google-calendar slack-notifier

# Search for skills matching a keyword
clawhub search india

# View details about a skill before installing
clawhub info irctc-train-alerts

Verifying installation

Skills are downloaded to ~/clawd/skills/. You can verify:

# List all installed skills
openclaw skills list

# Show the full content of a specific skill
cat ~/clawd/skills/gmail-manager.md

Reloading skills after installation

OpenClaw picks up new skills when it starts. If it is already running, send this message to your agent in any channel:

reload skills

Or restart the process:

# Stop with Ctrl+C then:
openclaw start

Enabling and disabling skills

Installed skills are active by default. To disable a skill without uninstalling it:

openclaw skills disable web-scraper
openclaw skills enable web-scraper

Or edit openclaw.config.json to set disabled skills explicitly:

{
  "skills": {
    "disabled": ["web-scraper", "news-briefing"]
  }
}

Top 10 Productivity Skills to Install First

These skills cover the most common personal assistant use cases:

1. gmail-manager — Read, search, compose, and send emails. Trigger: "check my emails," "draft a reply to [person]"
2. google-calendar — View, create, and update calendar events. Trigger: "schedule a meeting," "what's on my calendar tomorrow"
3. slack-notifier — Send messages and notifications to Slack channels. Trigger: "notify the team that the build is done"
4. file-organizer — Organize, move, rename, and search files on your machine. Trigger: "clean up my Downloads folder," "find all PDFs from last month"
5. web-scraper — Fetch content from any URL and extract structured data. Trigger: "get the price of X from [website]," "check if the page has changed"
6. reminder-pro — Advanced reminders with recurring schedules, snooze, and location-based triggers. Trigger: "remind me every Monday at 9 AM to review my week"
7. note-taker — Create, search, and manage notes in markdown files. Trigger: "make a note that," "find my notes about [topic]"
8. github-assistant — Create issues, review PRs, check repo stats. Trigger: "create a GitHub issue for the login bug"
9. weather-alert — Daily weather notifications and severe weather alerts for your city. Trigger: "set up a daily weather update for Mumbai at 7 AM"
10. news-briefing — Curated morning news from your preferred sources. Trigger: "give me today's news," "morning briefing"

Top 5 India-Specific Skills

ClawHub's India category has skills built specifically for the Indian context:

1. irctc-train-alerts

Monitors PNR status and train running status via the IRCTC API and sends alerts to your configured channel.

clawhub install irctc-train-alerts

Usage: "Set up PNR alert for 4512345678" or "Check running status for train 12951"

2. upi-reminder

Tracks UPI payment reminders — bill due dates, subscription renewals, money owed to/from contacts.

clawhub install upi-reminder

Usage: "Remind me to pay electricity bill of ₹1,200 on the 15th each month"

3. india-news-briefing

Morning news briefing sourced from The Hindu, Economic Times, NDTV, and other Indian outlets. Supports category filtering (tech, business, politics, sports).

clawhub install india-news-briefing

Usage: "Give me today's Indian tech news" or "Set up a morning briefing at 7 AM with business news"

4. gst-invoice-helper

Generates GST-compliant invoice templates in the correct format with GSTIN validation, HSN codes, and automatic CGST/SGST/IGST calculation.

clawhub install gst-invoice-helper

Usage: "Generate a GST invoice for ₹50,000 service to [company name] in Maharashtra"

5. zerodha-portfolio

Connects to Zerodha's Kite API to fetch your portfolio summary, P&L, and send daily performance alerts.

clawhub install zerodha-portfolio

Usage: "What's my portfolio performance today?" or "Alert me if any stock drops more than 5%"

Skill Categories at a Glance

Productivity: Daily briefings, reminders, note-taking, task queues, time tracking, document management

Communication: Email drafting templates, Slack/Discord/Teams notifications, SMS via Twilio, WhatsApp templates

Development: GitHub issues and PRs, Jira ticket management, deployment monitoring, code review checklists, log analysis

Finance: Stock alerts (BSE/NSE/NYSE), invoice generators (GST/non-GST), expense categorization, crypto price alerts, FD/RD interest calculators

Smart Home: Control devices via Home Assistant, trigger scenes, monitor sensors, scheduled automations

India-specific: Train tracking, UPI reminders, stock alerts, cricket scores, GST tools, government deadline reminders

How to Write a Custom Skill

Writing a custom skill takes 10–15 minutes. Skills are plain markdown with YAML frontmatter. Here is the complete template:

---
name: my-custom-skill
description: Brief description of what this skill does
version: "1.0"
author: your-name
triggers:
  - "phrase that activates this skill"
  - "another trigger phrase"
  - "yet another way to invoke it"
tools:
  - memory_read
  - memory_write
  - http_get
  - file_read
requiredEnv:
  - MY_API_KEY
---

## Skill Name

### Purpose
Explain in 1-2 sentences what this skill does and when the user should use it.

### Instructions
When a user message matches one of the trigger phrases above:

1. First, do this specific action
2. Then, do this second thing
3. Check this condition and branch accordingly:
   - If condition A: take this path
   - If condition B: take that path
4. Format the output as follows: [describe format]
5. If anything fails, inform the user clearly with what went wrong

### Output Format
Describe the format you want the agent to use when responding:
- Use bullet points for lists
- Keep responses under 200 words unless the user asks for detail
- Always include the time/date for time-sensitive information

### Memory Instructions
If any information from this interaction should be remembered:
- Save the user's preferred format to memory key: preferred_format
- Update the last-run timestamp to memory key: last_run_timestamp

### Error Handling
- If the API returns an error, explain the issue in plain language
- If required environment variables are missing, list them clearly
- Never expose raw error messages or stack traces to the user

Save this file to ~/clawd/skills/my-custom-skill.md and reload your skills.

Example: A Real Custom Skill

Here is a practical custom skill for tracking client projects:

---
name: client-tracker
description: Tracks client project status and sends reminders for follow-ups
triggers:
  - "client update"
  - "project status"
  - "follow up with"
  - "client list"
tools:
  - file_read
  - file_write
  - memory_read
requiredEnv: []
---

## Client Tracker Skill

### Instructions
Maintain a client project list in ~/clawd/memory/clients.md.

When the user says "add client [name] project [details]":
1. Read the current clients.md file
2. Append a new entry with: client name, project summary, start date, next follow-up date
3. Write the updated file back
4. Confirm the addition to the user

When the user says "client list" or "show my clients":
1. Read clients.md
2. List all active clients with their last update and next follow-up date
3. Highlight any follow-ups due within 3 days

When the user says "follow up with [client]":
1. Find the client in clients.md
2. Generate a professional but warm follow-up message draft
3. Ask the user to confirm before sending via the email tool

Skill Security: What to Check Before Installing

Most ClawHub verified skills are safe. For community skills without verification, spend 2 minutes reviewing the file before installing:

Check the tools list. A news briefing skill should not need file_write access to your home directory. A legitimate skill uses only the tools its description implies.

Check for network requests. If the skill's instructions include HTTP requests to unfamiliar URLs, investigate those URLs before installing.

Check requiredEnv entries. A skill asking for your master password, bank credentials, or Aadhaar number is suspicious. Legitimate skills use scoped API keys.

Avoid skill bundles from outside ClawHub. Random GitHub repos offering "power skill packs" should be treated with caution. Read every file in the bundle before adding it to your skills directory.

The golden rule: Skills are just markdown text that tells your agent how to behave. Reading the file takes 2 minutes and completely demystifies any security concern.

Managing Skills as Your Library Grows

Over time, you will accumulate many skills. Keep your setup efficient:

# List all skills with their status
openclaw skills list --verbose

# Check which skills are loading slowly (adding too much context)
openclaw skills audit

# Disable skills you use rarely
openclaw skills disable cricket-alerts zerodha-portfolio
# Re-enable when needed
openclaw skills enable zerodha-portfolio

A good rule: keep fewer than 15 skills active at once. Skills you use daily stay on. Skills you use weekly get disabled and re-enabled as needed. This keeps your agent's context lean and reduces API token costs.

Where to Go Next

With skills installed, you are ready to get deep into OpenClaw's advanced capabilities:

• OpenClaw Hacks and Power Tips — 21 hacks for memory, model routing, and cron automation
• OpenClaw India Guide — India-specific automations and WhatsApp setup
• OpenClaw Security Guide — Secure your skills and API keys
• OpenClaw on PromptAndSkills — Prompts optimized for OpenClaw skills