Skills Reference

Overview

OpenClaw comes with a library of pre-built skills that extend what your AI assistant can do. Skills are organized by category and come in two types: bundled skills that ship with every OpenClaw instance, and managed skills that are installed from the ClawHub registry.

This page lists every available skill, what it does, and what it needs to work.

Bundled vs Managed Skills

Bundled skills ship inside the OpenClaw container. They are available immediately on every instance without any installation step. You just enable them in the Skills tab.

Managed skills are hosted on the ClawHub registry and installed onto your instance when you select them. Installation happens automatically during instance creation or when you add skills later from the dashboard. Managed skills are stored in your instance's data volume and persist across restarts.

Both types appear in the Skills tab of your dashboard, where you can enable or disable them individually.

Productivity

Tools for everyday tasks like email, calendar management, weather, and project tracking.

Skill	Type	Description
Google Workspace	Managed	Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Sheets, and Docs in one skill
Weather	Bundled	Weather forecasts and current conditions
Summarize	Managed	Summarize long texts, articles, and documents
Trello	Bundled	Manage Trello boards, cards, and checklists

Google Workspace

Connects your AI to Google services. Your assistant can read and draft emails in Gmail, check your calendar for upcoming events and schedule new ones, browse and organize files in Google Drive, read and write data in Google Sheets, and create or edit Google Docs. Useful when you want a single assistant that handles all your Google tools without switching between apps.

No additional API keys required. Authentication is handled through the skill's built-in OAuth flow.

Weather

Provides current weather conditions and forecasts for any location. Ask your assistant things like "What's the weather in Berlin?" or "Will it rain tomorrow in Tokyo?" Works out of the box with no configuration.

Summarize

Takes long-form content and distills it into concise summaries. Feed it articles, documents, meeting notes, or any lengthy text. Your assistant can produce bullet-point summaries, key takeaways, or condensed versions at whatever length you prefer. Particularly useful for quickly processing research material or catching up on long email threads.

Trello

Gives your assistant full access to your Trello workspace. It can create and move cards, manage checklists, add comments, and organize boards. Handy for project management workflows where you want to update Trello without leaving your chat.

Developer Tools

Skills for software development, code execution, and repository management.

Skill	Type	Description
GitHub	Bundled	Manage issues, pull requests, and repositories
Coding Agent	Bundled	Run code tools like Claude Code or Codex CLI

GitHub

Connects your assistant to GitHub repositories. It can create and manage issues, review pull requests, browse repository contents, and check CI status. Useful for developers who want to triage issues, draft PR descriptions, or get quick repo overviews without opening the browser.

Coding Agent

Lets your assistant run code tools directly. It can execute Claude Code, Codex CLI, or similar development tools to write, debug, and refactor code. Designed for developers who want their AI assistant to actively work on codebases, not just discuss them.

Knowledge & Research

Skills for managing notes, knowledge bases, and searching the web.

Skill	Type	API Keys	Description
Notion	Bundled	None	Create and manage Notion pages and databases
Obsidian	Bundled	None	Manage your Obsidian vault and markdown notes
Web Search	Managed	At least one of: TAVILY_API_KEY, EXA_API_KEY, SERPER_API_KEY, SERPAPI_API_KEY	Search the web with AI-optimized results

Notion

Connects your assistant to your Notion workspace. It can create pages, update databases, search through your existing content, and organize information. Great for teams that use Notion as their knowledge base or project tracker.

Obsidian

Gives your assistant access to your Obsidian vault. It can create, read, and edit markdown notes, search through your vault, and help organize your personal knowledge base. Works well for people who use Obsidian for note-taking, journaling, or building a second brain.

Web Search

Enables real-time web search so your assistant can find current information. Without this skill, your assistant can only work with its training data. With it, you can ask things like "What happened in the news today?" or "Find the latest documentation for React 19."

This skill requires at least one search provider API key:

Provider	Env Variable	Best For
Tavily	TAVILY_API_KEY	AI-optimized search with content extraction
Exa	EXA_API_KEY	Semantic/neural search for deep research
Serper	SERPER_API_KEY	Real Google SERP results, good for news
SerpAPI	SERPAPI_API_KEY	Multi-engine search (Google, Bing, Baidu)

You only need one of these. Configure the API key in the Skills tab of your dashboard.

Content & Marketing

Skills for creating visual content and marketing materials.

Skill	Type	Description
Image Generation (Nano Banana)	Bundled	Generate and edit images with AI

Image Generation (Nano Banana)

Your assistant can generate images from text descriptions and edit existing images. Ask for illustrations, diagrams, social media graphics, or creative artwork. The skill uses AI image generation models and works without any additional API keys.

Media

Skills for music playback and video content.

Skill	Type	API Keys	Description
Spotify	Bundled	SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID, SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET	Control Spotify playback and browse music
YouTube	Managed	TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY	Search YouTube, get transcripts, and browse channels

Spotify

Connects your assistant to Spotify. It can control playback (play, pause, skip), search for music, browse playlists, and get information about artists and albums. Requires a Spotify Developer account.

Required API keys:

Env Variable	Where to Get It
SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID	Spotify Developer Dashboard
SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET	Spotify Developer Dashboard

YouTube

Lets your assistant search YouTube videos, retrieve video transcripts, and browse channel content. Particularly useful for research workflows where you need to quickly extract information from video content without watching the full video.

Required API key:

Env Variable	Where to Get It
TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY	TranscriptAPI.com

AI Enhancement

Skills that make your AI assistant smarter and more capable over time.

Skill	Type	Description
Skill Creator	Managed	Create new skills from natural language descriptions
Self-Improving Agent	Managed	Agent learns from errors and feedback to improve

Skill Creator

Lets your assistant create entirely new skills based on your natural language descriptions. Describe what you want a skill to do, and the Skill Creator generates the skill files, configuration, and instructions. A powerful way to extend your assistant's capabilities without writing code yourself.

Self-Improving Agent

Enables your assistant to learn from its mistakes and your feedback over time. When something goes wrong or you correct the assistant, it remembers and adjusts its behavior for future interactions. This creates a feedback loop where your assistant gets better the more you use it.

Installing Skills

You manage skills through the Skills tab in your instance dashboard.

During instance creation: The setup wizard lets you pick from recommended skills based on your chosen personality template. Selected skills are installed automatically when your instance deploys.

After creation: Open your instance dashboard, go to the Skills tab, and use the "Add Skills" button. You can select from the recommended list or enter a ClawHub URL to install community skills.

Enabling and disabling: Each installed skill has a toggle in the Skills tab. Disabled skills remain installed but are not active. You can re-enable them at any time without reinstalling.

API key configuration: Skills that require API keys show a configuration panel in the Skills tab. Enter your keys there, and the dashboard pushes them to your instance automatically.

Custom Skills via ClawHub

Beyond the skills listed on this page, the ClawHub registry hosts community-created skills. You can install any ClawHub skill by pasting its URL into the "Add Skills" panel in your dashboard.

Community skills are not verified or maintained by ClawHosters. Use them at your own discretion.

If you have SSH access to your instance, you can also install skills manually by placing them in the /root/.openclaw/skills/ directory inside the container. Keep in mind that manual skills are wiped during a rebuild.

Related Documentation

• Skills and Plugins: How skills and plugins work together
• OpenClaw Configuration Reference: Full config file reference
• SSH Access: Manual skill installation via SSH