Creating a Skill: Practical Guide 🟢

Creating a Skill is the simplest way to extend OpenClaw's capabilities. This chapter walks through a complete real-world example — creating a useful Skill from scratch.

I. End-to-End Creation Flow

flowchart TB
    IDEA["Have an idea:\n'I want AI to write Git commits my way'"]
    DEFINE["Define Skill goals:\ntriggers, behavior rules, output format"]
    CREATE["Create SKILL.md"]
    TEST["Test the Skill\n(verify in actual conversation)"]
    ITERATE["Iterate & improve\n(adjust based on test results)"]
    DONE["Skill ready! 🎉"]

    IDEA --> DEFINE --> CREATE --> TEST --> ITERATE --> DONE

II. Example: "Bilingual Git Assistant" Skill

Step 1: Define Goals

• Trigger: user asks to commit code or write commit message
• Core behavior: write commits with both English and Chinese descriptions
• Output format: fixed template
• Scope: only affects commit message, not code content

Step 2: Create Skill Directory

mkdir -p ~/.config/openclaw/skills/git-bilingual
# Or in project directory:
mkdir -p skills/git-bilingual

Step 3: Write SKILL.md

<!-- skills/git-bilingual/SKILL.md -->

# Bilingual Git Assistant

## When to Activate
Activate when user asks to "commit code", "write commit", "git commit".

## Commit Message Format

Always use this bilingual format:

\`\`\`
<type>(<scope>): <concise English summary>

<Chinese description explaining what changed and why>

- Key change 1
- Key change 2
\`\`\`

## Type Reference

| Type | When to Use |
|------|------------|
| feat | New feature |
| fix  | Bug fix |
| docs | Documentation only |
| refactor | Code restructure (no behavior change) |
| test | Test-related changes |
| chore | Build, deps, config changes |

## Pre-Commit Checklist

Before running git commit:
1. Run \`git diff --staged\` — confirm staged content is correct
2. Run \`git status\` — confirm no missing files

## Prohibited

- Do NOT commit without checking staged content first
- Do NOT combine multiple unrelated changes in one commit
- First line MUST be 72 characters or fewer

Step 4: Enable in Config

agents:
  list:
    - id: main
      skills:
        enabled:
          - git-bilingual
          - coding-agent

Step 5: Verify

After starting OpenClaw, send:

> Please commit the current changes — it's a new login feature

AI should:

1. Run git diff --staged first
2. Write bilingual commit message per the format
3. Execute git commit

III. Tips & Tricks

Tip 1: Support Files for Long Skills

skills/git-bilingual/
├── SKILL.md           ← main file (references others)
├── type-guide.md      ← detailed type reference
└── examples.md        ← real examples

In SKILL.md:

## Detailed Type Guide
See: [type-guide.md](type-guide.md)

Tip 2: Using SAG to Auto-Generate Skills

With the sag Skill enabled:

User: Create a skill that makes AI always suggest TypeScript strict mode and require JSDoc

AI: [automatically creates skills/ts-strict/SKILL.md]

IV. Debugging

Enable verbose logging in config.yaml:

log:
  verbose: true

Check that the Skill is injected in Bootstrap logs.

Common Issues

V. Sharing Skills

• Submit to OpenClaw repo: create a PR in skills/ for all users to benefit
• Git repository: others clone and use
• npm publish: follow OpenClaw's Skill packaging conventions

Key Reference Files

Summary

1. Skill = Markdown: create SKILL.md, put it in skills/ directory — done.
2. When-Then structure: specify clear triggers so AI knows when to apply the Skill.
3. SAG helps write Skills: if unsure how to write it, let AI write it for you.
4. Debug via verbose logs: confirm Skill is actually injected into Bootstrap.
5. Token budget is a real constraint: keep Skills concise — they will be truncated if too long.

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