Skill Publisher

Skill Publisher

End-to-end publishing workflow for agent skills. Covers GitHub, ClawdHub, and skills.sh — from pre-flight checks to installation verification.

Language

Respond in the same language the user used to invoke this skill. Fall back to English if no language signal is found.

Prerequisites

command -v gh >/dev/null || echo "CRITICAL: gh (GitHub CLI) not found — install with: brew install gh"
command -v git >/dev/null || echo "CRITICAL: git not found"

Optional (for ClawdHub publishing):

npx clawhub --help >/dev/null 2>&1 || echo "INFO: clawhub CLI not installed — needed for ClawdHub publishing"

Workflow Overview

The full publishing pipeline has 6 phases:

1. Pre-flight Check    → Validate skill structure and content
2. GitHub Publish      → Create repo, push, add topics
3. ClawdHub Publish    → Publish to ClawdHub registry
4. skills.sh Submit    → Submit index request via GitHub issue
5. Install Verify      → Test all installation methods
6. Post-publish        → Summary with all links and install commands

Run phases sequentially. If the user only wants a specific phase (e.g., "just submit to skills.sh"), skip to that phase.

Phase 1: Pre-flight Check

Validate the skill directory before publishing. Check ALL of the following:

1.1 Required Files

SKILL_DIR="<path-to-skill>"  # Ask user or infer from context

# Required
[ -f "$SKILL_DIR/SKILL.md" ] || echo "FAIL: SKILL.md missing"
[ -f "$SKILL_DIR/LICENSE" ]  || echo "FAIL: LICENSE missing"
[ -f "$SKILL_DIR/README.md" ] || echo "FAIL: README.md missing"

1.2 SKILL.md Frontmatter

Read SKILL.md and verify YAML frontmatter contains:

• name — required, should be kebab-case
• description — required, should be descriptive (used by search engines and skill discovery)
• version — required, valid semver

Optional but recommended:

• metadata.openclaw.emoji
• metadata.openclaw.homepage
• metadata.openclaw.os
• metadata.openclaw.requires.bins (list of required CLI tools)

1.3 README Quality

Check README.md for:

1. Badges — at least License badge. Platform badge recommended.
2. Description — clear one-liner explaining what the skill does.
3. Install section — should have placeholder install commands (will be updated after publishing).
4. No broken links — scan for URLs pointing to non-existent repos or placeholder orgs.
5. No hardcoded user paths — scan for /Users/xxx/ or /home/xxx/ patterns.
6. Secret redaction — no API keys, tokens, or passwords in plain text.

1.4 Bilingual README (Optional)

If the skill targets both Chinese and English users, check for:

• README.zh-CN.md exists
• Both READMEs have language switcher links at the top
• Both have consistent content (same sections, same install commands)

1.5 Report

Present findings:

# Pre-flight Report

## Required Files
- [x] SKILL.md
- [x] LICENSE (MIT)
- [x] README.md
- [ ] README.zh-CN.md (optional, not found)

## SKILL.md Frontmatter
- name: my-skill
- version: 1.0.0
- description: OK (127 chars)

## Issues Found
- WARNING: README contains placeholder org "nicepkg" — update before publishing
- INFO: No .gitignore found (optional but recommended)

## Ready to publish? YES / NO (with blockers listed)

Phase 2: GitHub Publish

2.1 Initialize Git Repo

cd "$SKILL_DIR"
git init
git add -A
git status  # Review staged files

Before committing, scan staged files for:

• Secrets (API keys, tokens, passwords)
• User-specific absolute paths (/Users/xxx/)
• Large binary files (> 1MB)

git commit -m "Initial release: <skill-name> v<version>"

2.2 Determine Repo Name

Ask the user for their preferred GitHub repo name. Default: same as the skill's name field in SKILL.md frontmatter.

Important: Check if the name is already taken on ClawdHub before creating the GitHub repo, so they can be consistent:

npx clawhub inspect <proposed-name> 2>&1

If taken on ClawdHub, suggest alternatives and let the user choose a name that works on both platforms.

2.3 Create GitHub Repo

gh repo create <owner>/<repo-name> \
  --public \
  --description "<skill description from SKILL.md>" \
  --source . \
  --push

2.4 Add GitHub Topics

Add discoverable topics for skills.sh indexing and general discoverability:

gh repo edit <owner>/<repo-name> --add-topic agent-skill,claude-code-skill

Additional topic suggestions based on skill content:

• Category topics: productivity, devtools, security, health-check, etc.
• Platform topics: macos, linux, openclaw
• Technology topics: eventkit, calendar, etc.

2.5 Update References

After repo creation, update all files that reference the repo:

• README.md — badge links, install commands, git clone URL
• README.zh-CN.md — same
• SKILL.md — metadata.openclaw.homepage
• docs/ — any user story or doc files with install commands
• LICENSE — copyright holder

# Verify no stale references remain
grep -r "placeholder-org\|nicepkg\|example-user" "$SKILL_DIR" --include="*.md"

Commit and push the updates.

Phase 3: ClawdHub Publish

3.1 Login

npx clawhub whoami 2>&1 || npx clawhub login

3.2 Check Slug Availability

npx clawhub inspect <slug> 2>&1

If slug is taken, suggest alternatives based on the skill name.

3.3 Publish

npx clawhub publish "$SKILL_DIR" \
  --slug <slug> \
  --name "<display-name>" \
  --version <version> \
  --changelog "<changelog text>"

Known issue (as of clawhub CLI v0.7.0): The server requires acceptLicenseTerms: true in the publish payload, but the CLI doesn't include it. If you get:

Error: Publish payload: acceptLicenseTerms: invalid value

Fix by patching the local CLI:

# Find the publish.js file
PUBLISH_JS="$(find ~/.npm/_npx -name 'publish.js' -path '*/clawhub/dist/cli/commands/*' 2>/dev/null | head -1)"

# Add acceptLicenseTerms to the payload
# In the JSON.stringify block, add: acceptLicenseTerms: true,

Then retry the publish command.

3.4 Verify

npx clawhub inspect <slug>

Phase 4: skills.sh Index Request

skills.sh does NOT auto-index skills. You must submit a request via GitHub issue.

4.1 Submit Index Request

gh issue create --repo vercel-labs/skills \
  --title "Request to index skill: <owner>/<repo>" \
  --body "$(cat <<'ISSUE_EOF'
## Skill Information

- **Repository:** https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>
- **Skill name:** <skill-name>
- **Install:** \`npx skills add <owner>/<repo>\`
- **License:** MIT

## Description

<2-3 sentence description of what the skill does and its key features>
ISSUE_EOF
)"

4.2 Note to User

Explain that:

• The index request is reviewed by the vercel-labs/skills maintainers
• It may take days to be processed
• The npx skills add <owner>/<repo> install command works immediately (it clones from GitHub directly)
• Only the npx skills search / npx skills find discovery requires indexing

Phase 5: Installation Verification

Test all three installation methods sequentially. Back up any existing installation first.

5.1 skills.sh

npx skills add <owner>/<repo> -g -y
# Verify: check installation path and file completeness
ls ~/.agents/skills/<skill-name>/ || ls ~/.claude/skills/<skill-name>/
# Cleanup
npx skills remove <skill-name> -g -y

5.2 ClawdHub

npx clawhub install <slug>
# Verify
ls ~/clawd/skills/<slug>/
# Cleanup
npx clawhub uninstall <slug> --yes

5.3 Manual Git Clone

git clone https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>.git /tmp/test-skill-install
# Verify
ls /tmp/test-skill-install/
# Cleanup
rm -rf /tmp/test-skill-install

5.4 Report

# Installation Verification

| Method | Command | Result |
|--------|---------|--------|
| skills.sh | npx skills add <owner>/<repo> -g -y | OK / FAIL |
| ClawdHub | clawhub install <slug> | OK / FAIL |
| Manual | git clone ... | OK / FAIL |

Phase 6: Post-publish Summary

Present a final summary with all links and commands:

# Published: <skill-name> v<version>

## Links
- GitHub: https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>
- ClawdHub: https://clawhub.ai/<owner>/<slug> (if published)
- skills.sh: pending indexing (issue #NNN)

## Install Commands
# skills.sh (recommended)
npx skills add <owner>/<repo> -g -y

# ClawdHub
clawhub install <slug>

# Manual
git clone https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>.git ~/.claude/skills/<skill-name>

## Next Steps
- [ ] Wait for skills.sh indexing (issue #NNN)
- [ ] Share the GitHub link
- [ ] Consider creating a GitHub Release with tag v<version>

Important Notes

• Slug consistency: Try to use the same name on GitHub and ClawdHub. If ClawdHub slug is taken, rename the GitHub repo to match the available ClawdHub slug for consistency.
• README install commands: Always update install commands in all README files after determining the final repo name and ClawdHub slug.
• Bilingual docs: If the skill has docs (e.g., user stories), create bilingual versions with language switcher links. English docs should use internationally recognizable examples (Telegram, not Feishu).
• Pre-commit privacy check: Before every git push, scan for real IP addresses, API keys, WiFi credentials, user-specific paths, and other PII.
• ClawdHub CLI bug: The acceptLicenseTerms patch is needed as of CLI v0.7.0. Check if newer versions fix this before patching.