Publish Skill#

Prepare and publish an OpenClaw skill to ClawHub. This skill codifies the audit → generalize → publish workflow.

When To Use#

• Publishing a new skill to ClawHub
• Updating an existing published skill
• When the user says "publish this skill", "prepare for publishing", "make a publishable copy"
• NOT for installing skills from ClawHub (that's npx clawhub@latest install)

Workflow#

Step 1: Audit the Live Skill#

Before creating any copy, audit the source skill for secrets and PII:

1. Read every file in the skill directory recursively
2. Check for these categories of sensitive content:

CategoryExamplesActionSecretsAPI keys, tokens, passwords, private keysMust removePathsAbsolute paths ( /home/username/..., /Users/...)Replace with env var or ~ relativeDiscord IDsChannel IDs, user IDs, guild IDs, message IDsRemove or replace with env varTimezonesHardcoded IANA timezone stringsReplace with env varPersonal dataReal names, emails, phone numbers, medication namesRemove or generalizeNetwork infoIP addresses, internal URLs, port numbersRemove or replace with placeholdersCustom identifiersUser-specific labels, internal project namesGeneralize

1. Report findings to the user before proceeding — do not silently modify

Step 2: Create Publishable Copy#

Create a separate directory (never modify the live skill):

text

$CLAWHUB_DEFAULT_DIR/<skill-name>-skill/

Default base: ~/projects/skills (override via CLAWHUB_DEFAULT_DIR env var).

Directory structure:

text

<skill-name>-skill/
├── SKILL.md           # Manifest (generalized)
├── README.md          # User-facing docs
├── .gitignore         # Standard ignores
├── scripts/           # Script files (generalized)
├── references/        # Optional reference docs
└── ...                # Any other skill-specific files

Step 3: Generalize Content#

For each file in the skill:

SKILL.md frontmatter:

• Add env: block declaring all extracted env vars with descriptions and required/optional
• Remove any personal identifiers from description

Scripts (Python, Shell, etc.):

• Replace hardcoded paths with os.environ.get("VAR", fallback) / env var reads
• Replace hardcoded timezones with env var (UTC fallback)
• Remove now()/ utc_now() fallbacks that bypass source timestamps — raise errors instead
• Remove personal data (medication names become empty lists with edit instructions, etc.)
• Remove dead code and unused imports

Documentation (Markdown):

• Remove Discord IDs, channel names, user IDs
• Replace personal examples with generic ones
• Keep timezone/ID references only as example values (e.g. "e.g. America/Los_Angeles")
• Remove internal URLs/IPs

Shell wrappers:

• Use relative path resolution: SCRIPT="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")" && pwd)/tracker.py"
• Remove hardcoded absolute paths

Step 4: Verify Clean State#

Run a final grep across all files:

bash

grep -rn "hardcoded_pattern1\|hardcoded_pattern2\|..." --include="*.py" --include="*.md" --include="*.sh" .

Verify:

• No secrets or tokens remain
• No absolute paths containing usernames
• No Discord/user IDs
• No personal data (real names, specific medication names, etc.)
• Timezone strings only in examples/comments, never as runtime defaults
• All config via env vars with sensible defaults

Step 5: Git Init and Commit#

bash

git init
git add -A
git commit -m "Initial publishable copy — no PII, no secrets"

Step 6: Publish (with user confirmation)#

Always confirm with the user before publishing.

bash

npx clawhub@latest publish --slug <skill-name> --version <version> --name "<display name>" /absolute/path/to/skill-dir

Gotchas:

• Use absolute paths, not . — cwd may not propagate through exec/shell layers
• --slug is required — without it, the CLI picks up the directory name
• Slug naming is competitive — every generic name ( publish-skill, skill-publisher, etc.) is likely taken. Pick something unique or namespaced (e.g. myname-publish-helper)
• Rate limited — if you get slug collisions repeatedly, wait 50s between retries

Common version bumps:

• New skill: 1.0.0
• Bug fix: patch bump (e.g. 1.0.0 → 1.0.1)
• New feature: minor bump (e.g. 1.0.0 → 1.1.0)

After publishing, report the slug, version, and install command to the user.

Common Patterns#

Extracting env vars from hardcoded values#

Before:

python

TIMEZONE = ZoneInfo("America/Los_Angeles")
WORKSPACE = "/home/user/.openclaw/workspace"

After:

python

TZ_STR = os.environ.get("MEDICATION_TIMEZONE", "UTC")
TIMEZONE = ZoneInfo(TZ_STR)
WORKSPACE = os.environ.get("WORKSPACE", os.path.expanduser("~/.openclaw/workspace"))

Replacing personal config with user-editable sections#

Before:

python

MORNING_MEDS = ["RealMedA", "RealMedB"]
KNOWN_MEDS = ["RealMedA", "RealMedB", "RealMedC"]

After:

python

# Edit these lists to match your regimen
MORNING_MEDS: list[str] = []  # e.g. ["MedA", "MedB"]
KNOWN_MEDS: list[str] = []   # e.g. ["MedA", "MedB", "MedC"]

Removing timestamp fallbacks#

Before:

python

dt_utc = datetime.fromisoformat(ts) if ts else datetime.now(timezone.utc)

After:

python

if not ts:
    raise ValueError("timestamp_utc is required — source message timestamp must be provided")
dt_utc = datetime.fromisoformat(ts.replace("Z", "+00:00"))

Changelog#

Add --changelog <text> to the publish command for release notes. Example:

bash

npx clawhub@latest publish --slug my-skill --version 1.1.0 --changelog "Added env var support, fixed timestamp handling" .

ClawHub CLI Reference#

CommandPurposenpx clawhub@latest loginAuthenticate (browser callback)npx clawhub@latest whoamiVerify authnpx clawhub@latest publish --slug X --version Y .Publish from current dirnpx clawhub@latest inspect <slug>View published metadatanpx clawhub@latest search <query>Search registry

Publish must run from inside the skill directory (requires SKILL.md in cwd).

Required Files#

• SKILL.md — this file
• references/checklist.md — quick audit checklist

Notes#

• Never modify the live skill — always create a separate copy
• The publishable copy should work for anyone who installs it with minimal config
• If a skill can't be fully generalized (e.g. deeply personal workflows), document what the user needs to configure
• ClawHub registry may not display env: frontmatter — that's a registry display issue, not a skill issue