The ClawHub Beginner's Guide: How to Find, Install, and Manage OpenClaw Skills

Q: How do I install a skill from ClawHub using the CLI?

Run 'clawhub install ' from your workspace directory. The CLI downloads the skill definition, places it in your skills/ directory, and registers it with your agent. You can pin a specific version with 'clawhub install @1.2.0' or install the latest with the default command. Always restart your agent after installation with 'openclaw restart' to load the new skill.

Q: How do I update or remove skills installed from ClawHub?

To check for updates, run 'clawhub outdated' to see all skills with newer versions available. Update a single skill with 'clawhub update ' or update everything with 'clawhub update --all'. To remove a skill, run 'clawhub uninstall '. The CLI also supports 'clawhub list' to see all currently installed skills and their versions.

ClawHub has 13,729 skills. Finding the right ones should not take all day.

ClawHub is the largest registry for OpenClaw skills — free, open, and growing fast. In January 2026 it had around 3,200 listings. By March, that number has crossed 13,700. The ecosystem is exploding, and if you are new to OpenClaw, that growth is both exciting and overwhelming.

The problem is that ClawHub's official documentation is built for people who already know what they are doing. There is no single walkthrough that takes a beginner from "I just heard about ClawHub" to "I have skills installed and running." The CLI docs list every flag and option without showing you the practical workflow that ties them together.

This guide fills that gap. We will cover what ClawHub actually is, how to search and browse it effectively, how to install skills using the CLI, how to manage versions and updates, and how the three-tier skill hierarchy works in OpenClaw. By the end, you will have a clear workflow for finding, evaluating, and installing skills from ClawHub into any OpenClaw workspace.

A quick note on terminology: ClawHub hosts individual skills — discrete capabilities you add to an agent. If you are looking for complete, pre-configured workspace templates (environments with multiple skills already assembled and tested), that is what platforms like ClawAgora provide. This guide focuses specifically on ClawHub and individual skills.

What is ClawHub?

ClawHub is a free, community-driven registry where developers publish and discover OpenClaw skill definitions. Think of it as npm for the OpenClaw ecosystem, or Docker Hub for AI agent capabilities.

A "skill" in OpenClaw is a structured instruction set that teaches your AI agent how to perform a specific task. It is not an API endpoint or a running service — it is a definition file (typically SKILL.md plus optional configuration) that tells your agent what it can do, what inputs it needs, and how to execute the task. Skills can range from simple (a web search wrapper) to complex (a full Google Workspace integration that manages email, calendar, and documents).

Key facts about ClawHub:

Cost: Free for everyone — browsing, downloading, and publishing
Current catalog: 13,729 skills as of March 2026
Content type: Skill definitions (configuration files, not running environments)
Quality control: Community moderation, but no mandatory code review or publisher verification
Access: Web interface at clawhub.org and CLI tool (clawhub)

ClawHub does not host running workspaces, provide compute, or include AI messaging. It is purely a registry. To actually run a skill you download from ClawHub, you need an OpenClaw workspace — either self-hosted or on a managed platform.

Browsing ClawHub: The web interface

The fastest way to get oriented is the ClawHub web interface at clawhub.org. It works exactly how you would expect a package registry to work.

The search bar

The search bar on the homepage accepts keywords, skill names, and natural-language descriptions. Searching for "email management" returns skills related to email triage, drafting, and automation. Searching for "GOG" returns the specific Google Workspace skill by that name.

Category filters

ClawHub organizes skills into categories:

Productivity — Email, calendar, task management, note-taking
Development — GitHub integration, deployment, code review, testing
Research — Web search, document analysis, data extraction
Communication — Messaging platforms, voice, notifications
Automation — Workflow orchestration, scheduling, monitoring
Smart Home — IoT device control, sensor monitoring
Self-Improvement — Agent learning, memory management, behavior optimization

Each category page shows skills sorted by install count by default, which is a reasonable proxy for community trust.

Skill detail pages

Clicking on a skill opens its detail page, which includes:

Description — What the skill does
Install count — How many workspaces have installed it
Star rating — Community quality rating
Version history — All published versions with changelogs
Configuration examples — How to set up the skill
Dependencies — What the skill requires (external APIs, other skills, etc.)
Publisher info — Who published the skill and when

Pay attention to install count and publisher history. A skill with 10,000+ installs from a known publisher is very different from a skill with 12 installs from a week-old account. We have a separate guide on verifying skill safety if you want the full security checklist.

The ClawHub CLI: Your primary tool

While the web interface is great for browsing, the CLI is how you actually interact with ClawHub for installation and management. The clawhub command-line tool ships with OpenClaw and is available in any workspace.

Verifying your installation

First, confirm the CLI is available:

clawhub --version

You should see a version number (e.g., clawhub 2.4.1). If the command is not found, you may need to update your OpenClaw installation:

openclaw update

Searching from the CLI

The clawhub search command is the CLI equivalent of the web search bar, but with more powerful filtering options.

Basic search:

clawhub search "google workspace"

This returns a list of matching skills with their name, description, install count, and latest version.

Filtered search:

clawhub search "email" --category productivity --sort installs

This narrows results to the productivity category and sorts by install count (most popular first).

Available sort options:

Flag	What it sorts by
`--sort installs`	Total install count (descending)
`--sort stars`	Community star rating (descending)
`--sort recent`	Most recently updated
`--sort name`	Alphabetical

Minimum install threshold:

clawhub search "automation" --min-installs 500

This filters out skills with fewer than 500 installs — useful for finding battle-tested options in a category with hundreds of listings.

Viewing full details from the CLI:

clawhub info gog

This prints the full detail page for a specific skill: description, version history, dependencies, configuration format, and publisher information. It is the CLI equivalent of clicking into a skill on the web interface.

A practical search workflow

Here is a real workflow for finding a skill. Say you want to add calendar management to your agent.

Step 1 — Broad search:

clawhub search "calendar"

This might return 40+ results. Too many to evaluate individually.

Step 2 — Filter and sort:

clawhub search "calendar" --category productivity --sort installs --min-installs 100

Now you are looking at maybe 8-12 skills that are in the right category and have meaningful community adoption.

Step 3 — Inspect the top candidates:

clawhub info calendar-sync
clawhub info gog
clawhub info smart-calendar

Read the descriptions, check the dependency lists, and compare what each one offers. gog includes calendar as part of a broader Google Workspace integration. calendar-sync might be a lighter, focused option.

Step 4 — Check the publisher and security:

clawhub info calendar-sync --show-publisher

Look at the publisher's account age, other published skills, and linked repositories. For skills you plan to use in production, follow the full verification checklist.

Step 5 — Install:

clawhub install calendar-sync

This workflow takes five minutes and consistently surfaces better results than scrolling through the web interface.

Installing skills from ClawHub

Installation is straightforward once you have identified the skill you want.

Basic installation

From your workspace directory:

clawhub install <skill-name>

For example:

clawhub install gog

The CLI does the following:

Downloads the skill definition from ClawHub
Places it in your workspace's skills/ directory
Registers the skill with your agent configuration
Reports success or any dependency issues

Installing a specific version

By default, clawhub install pulls the latest version. To pin a specific version:

clawhub install gog@2.1.0

Version pinning is important for production workspaces where you want predictable behavior. A new version might change how the skill works or introduce breaking changes.

Installing with dependencies

Some skills depend on other skills or external tools. If a skill has dependencies, the CLI will tell you:

clawhub install smart-calendar
# Output:
# smart-calendar requires:
#   - google-auth (not installed)
#   - notification-manager (not installed)
# Install dependencies? [Y/n]

Pressing Y installs the dependencies automatically. If you prefer to manage them manually, press n and install each one separately.

Post-installation: Restart your agent

After installing a skill, restart your agent to load it:

openclaw restart

The agent reads skill definitions at startup. Without a restart, your newly installed skill will not be available.

Post-installation: Configuration

Many skills require configuration — API keys, account credentials, or preference settings. The skill's documentation (viewable with clawhub info <skill-name>) will tell you what is needed.

Common configuration patterns:

Environment variables:

# Add to your .env file
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=your-client-id
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=your-client-secret

Skill-specific config files:

# Some skills create a config file in skills/<skill-name>/config.yaml
# Edit it with your preferences

Interactive setup:

# Some skills include a setup command
openclaw skill setup gog

Always check the skill documentation for the exact setup process. Skipping configuration is the number one reason skills "don't work" after installation.

Understanding the three-tier skill hierarchy

OpenClaw organizes skills into three tiers. Understanding this hierarchy matters because it determines how skills interact, which takes precedence, and how updates work.

Tier 1: Bundled skills

Bundled skills ship with the OpenClaw core installation. They are always available in every workspace, require no installation, and are maintained by the OpenClaw core team.

Examples of bundled skills:

File Management — Basic file reading, writing, and organization
Web Browsing — Simple web page retrieval and content extraction
System Info — Hardware and OS information
Memory — Basic conversation memory and recall

Bundled skills provide the foundation. They are intentionally minimal — just enough for the agent to function out of the box. You cannot uninstall them, but you can override them (more on that below).

Tier 2: Managed skills

Managed skills are maintained by the OpenClaw team but are not bundled with the core installation. They live on ClawHub and are installed using the standard clawhub install command, but they carry an "official" badge indicating they are tested for compatibility with each OpenClaw release.

You can identify managed skills on ClawHub by the checkmark badge next to their name, or filter for them in the CLI:

clawhub search "search" --official-only

Managed skills are updated on a release cadence tied to OpenClaw core versions. When you run openclaw update, the system checks for compatible updates to your installed managed skills.

Examples include the official search integrations, the standard notification framework, and the base automation toolkit.

Tier 3: Workspace skills

Workspace skills are everything else — community-contributed skills from ClawHub, skills from GitHub repositories, and custom skills you write yourself. This is where the 13,729 listings on ClawHub live. They are installed into a specific workspace's skills/ directory and are only available in that workspace.

Workspace skills are the most diverse and the most variable in quality. They range from polished, well-maintained tools with thousands of installs to experimental one-off creations.

How the tiers interact: Override rules

When two skills have the same name or overlapping functionality, the higher tier wins:

Workspace > Managed > Bundled

This means:

A workspace skill with the same name as a bundled skill replaces the bundled version in that workspace
A workspace skill with the same name as a managed skill replaces the managed version in that workspace
A managed skill with the same name as a bundled skill replaces the bundled version

This is by design. The override system lets you customize any default behavior without modifying the OpenClaw core. If the bundled web browsing skill is too basic for your needs, you install a more capable workspace-level replacement and it takes over automatically.

Checking active skill tiers:

openclaw skill list --show-tier

This shows every active skill in your workspace, its tier, and whether it is overriding a lower-tier skill.

Managing installed skills

Installation is just the beginning. Skills need to be updated, audited, and occasionally removed.

Listing installed skills

clawhub list

This shows all skills installed from ClawHub in your workspace, along with their current version and install date.

For a more comprehensive view that includes bundled and managed skills:

openclaw skill list

Checking for updates

clawhub outdated

This compares your installed versions against the latest versions on ClawHub and lists any skills with available updates. Output looks like:

Skill             Current    Latest
gog               2.1.0      2.3.1
github-integration 1.4.2      1.5.0
mission-control   3.0.0      3.0.0     (up to date)

Updating skills

Update a single skill:

clawhub update gog

Update all skills:

clawhub update --all

Update to a specific version:

clawhub update gog@2.2.0

After updating, restart your agent:

openclaw restart

Version rollback

If an update breaks something, roll back to the previous version:

clawhub install gog@2.1.0

This overwrites the current version with the specified one. The clawhub install command always replaces whatever version is currently installed.

Removing skills

clawhub uninstall <skill-name>

This removes the skill definition from your skills/ directory and deregisters it from your agent configuration. Restart your agent afterward.

Lockfiles

For production workspaces where reproducibility matters, ClawHub supports a lockfile:

clawhub lock

This generates a clawhub-lock.json file that records the exact version of every installed skill. You can then reproduce the exact same skill setup in another workspace:

clawhub install --from-lockfile

Lockfiles are especially useful for teams sharing workspace configurations or for backing up your setup before major changes.

Troubleshooting common issues

"Skill not found" after installation

Symptom: You installed a skill but your agent does not recognize it.

Fix: Restart your agent with openclaw restart. Skills are loaded at startup — installing a skill while the agent is running does not make it immediately available.

"Permission denied" during installation

Symptom: clawhub install fails with a permissions error.

Fix: Make sure you are running the command from within your workspace directory, and that your user has write access to the skills/ directory:

ls -la skills/

If the directory does not exist, create it:

mkdir -p skills

Skill installs but does not work

Symptom: The skill appears in openclaw skill list but the agent never uses it.

Causes and fixes:

Missing configuration — Run clawhub info <skill-name> and check if there are required environment variables or config files you missed.
Missing dependencies — Run clawhub info <skill-name> and check the dependencies section. Install any missing prerequisites.
Conflicting skills — Two skills with overlapping functionality can confuse the agent. Check openclaw skill list --show-tier for override conflicts.
Description mismatch — The agent decides which skill to invoke based on the skill's description. If the description does not match how you are prompting the agent, it may not recognize when to use the skill. Try asking the agent directly: "Use the [skill-name] skill to do X."

Version conflicts

Symptom: A skill that worked before breaks after updating another skill.

Fix: Check if the broken skill has dependency requirements that conflict with the updated skill. Run clawhub info <broken-skill> to see its dependency versions. You may need to pin compatible versions:

clawhub install dependency-skill@1.2.0

Slow search results

Symptom: clawhub search takes a long time to return results.

Fix: Add filters to narrow the search scope:

clawhub search "query" --category <category> --min-installs 50

The more specific your query and filters, the faster the response.

Best practices for skill management

After working with ClawHub across hundreds of installations, here are the patterns that consistently lead to better outcomes.

Start with high-install skills

When exploring a new category, sort by installs. Skills with thousands of installs have been battle-tested by the community. They are more likely to be well-documented, actively maintained, and compatible with other popular skills.

Read the SKILL.md before installing

Every skill has a SKILL.md file that contains the instructions your agent will follow. Reading it tells you exactly what the skill will do — and more importantly, what it won't do. A three-minute read can save you an hour of debugging.

Pin versions in production

If your workspace is doing anything important, pin your skill versions:

clawhub install gog@2.1.0
clawhub lock

This prevents automatic updates from introducing breaking changes. Update deliberately, test after updating, and roll back if needed.

Keep your skill count manageable

It is tempting to install every interesting skill you find. Resist that urge. Each skill adds context for your agent to process, and too many skills can lead to slower response times and confused tool selection. A focused set of 10-15 well-configured skills typically outperforms a bloated set of 40.

Audit periodically

Run clawhub outdated weekly to check for updates. Run openclaw security audit monthly to check for known vulnerabilities. Remove skills you are not actively using — an unused skill is an unnecessary attack surface.

ClawHub skills vs. workspace templates

One distinction worth clarifying, especially for beginners: a ClawHub skill and a workspace template (like those on ClawAgora) are different things that serve different purposes.

A ClawHub skill is a single capability — one building block. Installing it gives your agent one new ability. You assemble multiple skills together into a working environment yourself.

A workspace template is a complete, pre-configured environment. It includes multiple skills, their configurations, environment setup, and tested integrations. Installing a template gives you a ready-to-use workspace, not just a single capability.

The analogy: a ClawHub skill is a single LEGO brick. A workspace template is a completed LEGO set with instructions.

Both have their place. If you know exactly which skill you need and are comfortable configuring it yourself, ClawHub gives you direct access to the largest catalog available. If you want a tested, working environment without the assembly step, workspace templates get you running faster.

Many experienced users do both — they start with a workspace template as a foundation and then add individual skills from ClawHub to customize it further.

ClawHub's catalog is large and growing fast. With the search workflow, CLI commands, and management practices covered in this guide, you have everything you need to navigate it effectively.

For a deeper look at evaluating skill safety before installation, see our security verification guide. If you want to understand how ClawHub and ClawAgora complement each other, read ClawAgora vs ClawHub. And if you are ready to explore pre-built workspace templates that include curated skill configurations, browse the community library.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is ClawHub and how is it different from ClawAgora?

ClawHub is a free, community-driven registry for individual OpenClaw skill definitions — similar to how npm hosts JavaScript packages. It currently lists 13,729 skills. ClawAgora is a community-driven platform for sharing complete workspace templates with optional managed hosting. ClawHub gives you individual building blocks (skills); ClawAgora gives you pre-assembled, tested environments (workspace templates). They are complementary, not competing.

How do I search for skills on ClawHub?

You can search ClawHub two ways: through the web interface at clawhub.org using filters for category, popularity, and recency, or through the CLI with clawhub search <query>. The CLI supports flags like --category, --sort, and --min-installs to narrow results. For example, clawhub search "email" --category productivity --sort installs finds the most-installed email skills.

What is the difference between bundled, managed, and workspace skills in OpenClaw?

OpenClaw uses a three-tier skill hierarchy. Bundled skills ship with the OpenClaw core and are always available (e.g., file management, web browsing basics). Managed skills are maintained by the OpenClaw team and installed from ClawHub with guaranteed compatibility. Workspace skills are community-contributed or custom skills installed into a specific workspace. Higher tiers override lower tiers — a workspace skill with the same name as a bundled skill will replace it.

How do I install a skill from ClawHub using the CLI?

Run clawhub install <skill-name> from your workspace directory. The CLI downloads the skill definition, places it in your skills/ directory, and registers it with your agent. You can pin a specific version with clawhub install <skill-name>@1.2.0 or install the latest with the default command. Always restart your agent after installation with openclaw restart to load the new skill.

How do I update or remove skills installed from ClawHub?

To check for updates, run clawhub outdated to see all skills with newer versions available. Update a single skill with clawhub update <skill-name> or update everything with clawhub update --all. To remove a skill, run clawhub uninstall <skill-name>. The CLI also supports clawhub list to see all currently installed skills and their versions.