ClawHub Smart Updater Skill 🔄#

Description#

Intelligent ClawHub skill updater with smart merge capabilities. Preserves local modifications, detects conflicts, and provides detailed merge recommendations instead of blindly overwriting files.

When to Use This Skill#

Use this skill when:

• You have locally modified skills from ClawHub
• You want to update skills without losing your changes
• You need conflict detection and merge recommendations
• You want automatic backups before updates
• You prefer safe, conservative updates over risky auto-updates

Key Differences from auto-updater#

FeatureSmart Updaterauto-updaterLocal change detection✅ Yes❌ NoConflict detection✅ Yes❌ NoAutomatic backup✅ Yes❓ UnknownMerge recommendations✅ Yes❌ NoUpdate frequencyWeekly (safe)Daily (risky)Blind overwrite❌ Never⚠️ Likely

Installation#

bash

# Install via ClawHub
clawhub install clawhub-smart-updater

# The skill installs:
# - smart-update.py (main updater script)
# - restore-backup.py (rollback tool)
# - config.json (configuration)

Usage#

Quick Start#

bash

# Run smart update check
python skills/clawhub-smart-updater/smart-update.py

# This will:
# 1. Check all installed skills for updates
# 2. Backup current versions
# 3. Download new versions to temp
# 4. Compare and categorize changes
# 5. Generate report with recommendations

Command Line Options#

bash

# Dry run (no changes)
python smart-update.py --dry-run

# Update specific skill
python smart-update.py --slug image-with-comfyui

# Force update (skip conflict detection)
python smart-update.py --force

# Verbose output
python smart-update.py --verbose

# Cleanup old backups
python smart-update.py --cleanup-backups --older-than 7

OpenClaw Cron Integration#

The skill is designed for OpenClaw cron jobs:

json

{
  "cron": {
    "jobs": [
      {
        "name": "Weekly Smart Update",
        "schedule": {
          "kind": "cron",
          "expr": "0 10 * * 1",
          "tz": "Europe/Prague"
        },
        "payload": {
          "kind": "agentTurn",
          "message": "Run smart-update.py --report and send summary to user"
        },
        "delivery": {
          "channel": "whatsapp",
          "to": "<YOUR_PHONE_NUMBER>"
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

How It Works#

1. Discovery Phase#

bash

clawhub list → Get installed skills
clawhub inspect <slug> → Get latest version
Compare: local_version vs latest_version

2. Backup Phase#

powershell

Copy-Item skills/<slug> skills/<slug>.backup-YYYY-MM-DD -Recurse

3. Download Phase#

bash

clawhub inspect <slug> --files --output temp/<slug>-new

4. Analysis Phase#

• Hash all files (SHA-256)
• Compare with original ClawHub hashes
• Identify locally modified files
• Categorize changes:
  • Safe: Docs, configs, untouched files
  • Conflict: Code files modified both upstream and locally

5. Merge Phase#

• Apply safe changes automatically
• Flag conflicts for manual review
• Generate diff files
• Create merge report

6. Report Phase#

Generate detailed report:

• What was updated
• What needs review
• Security warnings
• Statistics

Configuration#

config.json#

json

{
  "backup": {
    "enabled": true,
    "retention_days": 7,
    "directory": "skills/.backups"
  },
  "conflict": {
    "auto_backup": true,
    "generate_diff": true,
    "require_manual_review": true
  },
  "notification": {
    "enabled": true,
    "channel": "whatsapp",
    "target": "<YOUR_PHONE_NUMBER>",
    "on_conflict_only": false
  },
  "update": {
    "auto_apply_safe": true,
    "auto_apply_conflicts": false,
    "ignore_whitespace": true
  }
}

Output Examples#

Success Report#

markdown

## Smart Update Report - 2026-05-07

### ✅ Auto-Updated (2 skills):
- image-with-comfyui: 1.4.8 → 1.4.9 (docs only)
- moltbook-interact: 1.0.0 → 1.0.1 (bugfix)

### ⚠️ Manual Review Required (1 skill):
- fusion-bridge: 1.0.2 → 1.0.3
  - Conflict in main.py (lines 45-67)
  - See: temp/fusion-bridge/diff.txt

### Stats:
- Checked: 23 skills
- Updated: 2
- Conflicts: 1
- Backups cleaned: 3

Conflict Report#

markdown

### ⚠️ fusion-bridge: Conflict Detected

**Local changes:**
- Modified: main.py (custom error handling)
- Modified: SKILL.md (Czech translations)

**Upstream changes:**
- Fixed: main.py (bugfix in connect() function)
- Updated: README.md (new examples)

**Conflict:**
Both local and upstream modified main.py lines 45-67

**Recommendation:**
Manual merge required. Upstream bugfix is important, but preserve custom error handling.

**Actions:**
1. Review: temp/fusion-bridge/diff.txt
2. Merge manually
3. Run: python smart-update.py --accept fusion-bridge

Safety Features#

Backup System#

• Automatic pre-update backups
• Dated backup folders
• Configurable retention (default: 7 days)
• Easy rollback with restore-backup.py

Conflict Detection#

• SHA-256 content hashing
• Tracks which files you've modified
• Intelligent categorization
• Diff generation for conflicts

Security#

• VirusTotal integration (warns on SUSPICIOUS)
• Dependency change detection
• Permission audit
• No blind overwrites

Troubleshooting#

"Permission denied" error#

Cause: File locked by editor or process

Solution:

bash

# Close editors using skill files
# Or force unlock
python smart-update.py --force-unlock

Backup directory too large#

Cause: Old backups accumulating

Solution:

bash

python smart-update.py --cleanup-backups --older-than 7

False positive conflicts#

Cause: Whitespace changes detected

Solution:

bash

python smart-update.py --ignore-whitespace

Files Included#

• smart-update.py - Main updater script
• restore-backup.py - Rollback tool
• config.json - Configuration
• SKILL.md - This documentation
• README.md - Extended documentation

Requirements#

• Python 3.10+
• ClawHub CLI installed
• Git (optional, for advanced diff)
• Windows PowerShell (for backup scripts)

License#

MIT-0 - Free to use, modify, and redistribute without attribution.

Author#

Klepeto 🦞 (vilda)

Created: 2026-05-07

Tested on: Windows 11, Python 3.12

Changelog#

1.0.0 (2026-05-07)#

• Initial release
• Smart merge with conflict detection
• Automatic backup system
• Diff generation
• OpenClaw cron integration
• WhatsApp reporting