openclaw-skill-boilerplate

Production-ready boilerplate for building OpenClaw skills. Scaffold, develop, and publish skills to ClaWHub in minutes.

Quick Start

Scaffold a new skill

npx openclaw-skill-boilerplate my-awesome-skill
cd my-awesome-skill
npm run build

This generates a complete skill project with TypeScript, SKILL.md, and all the boilerplate you need.

Install as a dependency

npm install -g openclaw-skill-boilerplate
openclaw-skill-boilerplate my-skill

What is an OpenClaw Skill?

A skill is a directory with a SKILL.md file and supporting code that extends an AI agent's capabilities. Skills are distributed via ClaWHub and installed with:

npx clawhub@latest install <skill-name>

Project Structure

openclaw-skill-boilerplate/
├── SKILL.md                        # Skill entrypoint (OpenClaw reads this)
├── README.md                       # Documentation
├── package.json                    # npm package config
├── tsconfig.json                   # TypeScript strict mode
├── src/
│   ├── index.ts                    # Main skill logic & exports
│   ├── tools.ts                    # Tool definitions
│   └── types.ts                    # Shared TypeScript types
├── scripts/
│   └── scaffold.ts                 # CLI scaffolding script
├── templates/
│   └── skill/                      # Template files for scaffolding
│       ├── SKILL.md.template
│       ├── src/index.ts.template
│       ├── package.json.template
│       ├── tsconfig.json
│       └── .gitignore
├── examples/
│   └── hello-world/                # Minimal working example
│       ├── SKILL.md
│       └── src/index.ts
└── .github/
    └── workflows/
        └── ci.yml                  # CI: build & type check

SKILL.md Spec

Every OpenClaw skill needs a SKILL.md with YAML frontmatter:

---
name: my-skill
description: What your skill does
version: 0.1.0
author: your-name
tags:
  - category
triggers:
  - natural language trigger phrase
---

The body contains documentation that the AI agent reads to understand how to use the skill, including tool descriptions, parameters, and examples.

Developing Your Skill

1. Define your tools

Edit src/tools.ts (or the generated src/index.ts) to define the tools your skill provides:

const myTool: SkillTool = {
  name: "my-tool",
  description: "What this tool does",
  parameters: [
    {
      name: "input",
      type: "string",
      description: "The input to process",
      required: true,
    },
  ],
  execute: async (args) => {
    const input = args.input as string;
    return { success: true, data: `Result: ${input}` };
  },
};

2. Document in SKILL.md

Add your tool to the ## Tools section of SKILL.md so the AI agent knows how to use it.

3. Build

npm run build        # Compile TypeScript
npm run typecheck    # Type check only
npm run dev          # Watch mode

Publishing to ClaWHub

Once your skill is ready:

# 1. Make sure it builds
npm run build

# 2. Publish to ClaWHub
npx clawhub@latest publish

# 3. Others can install it with
npx clawhub@latest install your-skill-name

Scripts

| Script | Description | |--------|-------------| | npm run build | Compile TypeScript to dist/ | | npm run dev | Watch mode compilation | | npm run typecheck | Type check without emitting | | npm run scaffold | Scaffold a new skill (dev mode) |

Example

See examples/hello-world/ for a minimal working skill that demonstrates the pattern.

License

MIT