sboghossian OpenClaw — Contribution Template
Purpose
OpenClaw is the open-source layer of the HAQQ Legal AI skill ecosystem. Community members — lawyers, developers, legal researchers, and law students — can contribute legal AI skills that are reviewed, versioned, and published to the public registry. This skill defines the exact process for doing so.
Contribution workflow
Step 1 — Fork the registry repository
Fork github.com/sboghossian/mini-claude-for-legal. Work in a feature branch named skill/<your-skill-id> (e.g., skill/draft-mou-uae).
Step 2 — Create the skill file
Skills live under skills/<category>/<skill-id>/SKILL.md. Create that directory and file. Use the standard SKILL.md frontmatter template:
---
name: <slug matching your directory name>
description: <1-4 sentences, third-person, routing-focused. Start with "Use when…">
license: MIT
metadata:
id: <category.slug>
category: <one of: draft | review | kb | research | conversation | router | connector | ops | onboarding | output | ...>
practice_area: <omit for non-substantive skills>
jurisdictions: [<LB | KSA | UAE | DIFC | ADGM | QFC | EG | FR | UK | US | EU | OHADA | GCC | __multi__>]
priority: <P0 | P1 | P2 | P3>
intent: [<2–6 routing keywords>]
related: [<related-skill-slugs>]
source: <your name or org + link if applicable>
version: "1.0"
---
# Human-Readable Title
[body — see structure guide below]
Step 3 — Write the body
The body length target is 120–320 lines of genuinely useful content. Choose the structure that fits the category:
- Drafting skills: When to use / Required inputs / Document structure / Jurisdictional notes / Drafting standards / Common mistakes / Related skills
- Review / analysis: When to use / Inputs / Review methodology / What to flag / Output format / Jurisdictional notes / Limits & escalation / Related skills
- Knowledge packs: Scope / substantive reference content / How to use / Caveats & currency
- Conversational / behavioral: When this applies / Behavior / Examples / Edge cases / Do not / Related skills
Quality bar — non-negotiable:
- Every sentence must add information a practitioner would act on.
- Do not fabricate statute numbers, article numbers, or case citations.
- If your skill covers MENA jurisdictions, distinguish civil-law (LB, KSA, UAE-onshore, EG, FR) from common-law (DIFC, ADGM, UK) handling.
- Include
[[wikilink]]cross-references to related skills usingcategory-slugform.
Step 4 — Submit a pull request
Open a PR from your feature branch against main. The PR description must include:
- Skill category and practice area
- Jurisdictions covered
- Brief rationale: what gap this fills
- Reviewer recommendation: suggest a lawyer (by jurisdiction/practice area) if you know one in the community
Step 5 — Lawyer review
Every skill that touches substantive law requires sign-off from at least one admitted lawyer in a covered jurisdiction before merge. The review process:
- Reviewer comments directly in the PR on any factual, statutory, or jurisdictional issue.
- Author revises and re-requests review.
- Reviewer approves or escalates to a second reviewer.
- Turnaround target: 14 days for community reviewers; expedited for HAQQ-seed skills.
Non-substantive skills (ops, tooling, formatting, connector) do not require lawyer review but still require a maintainer technical review.
Step 6 — Merge and version
On merge the skill receives a canonical version ("1.0"). Subsequent updates increment following semver-lite conventions:
- Patch (
1.0 → 1.0.1): typo, minor wording correction, non-substantive. - Minor (
1.0 → 1.1): adds a jurisdiction, new section, or expands substantive content. - Major (
1.0 → 2.0): rewrites core guidance, changes the skill's primary behavior.
Step 7 — Author credit
The contributor's name (or GitHub handle, if preferred) is added to the skill's source field and to the registry author index. Attribution persists through all subsequent versions.
Licensing
All community-contributed skills are published under CC-BY-SA 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International). This means:
- Anyone may use, adapt, and redistribute the skill.
- Derivative works must carry the same CC-BY-SA licence.
- Attribution to the original author(s) is required.
The underlying software and tooling of the OpenClaw registry is MIT-licensed.
What makes a good contribution
| Strong contribution | Weak contribution |
|---|---|
| Covers a specific jurisdiction with named statutes/frameworks | Generic advice not tied to any legal system |
| Fills a gap not already covered by an existing skill | Near-duplicate of an existing skill |
| Written by or reviewed by someone with relevant practice experience | Pure AI-generated content without practitioner review |
| Includes concrete examples, thresholds, or checklists | Vague guidance that could mean anything |
| Correctly cross-references related skills | No cross-references |
What not to submit
- Content that provides personalized legal advice rather than practitioner guidance.
- Skills whose factual claims you cannot verify (statute numbers, case citations) — omit such claims rather than guess.
- Skills that are brand-marketing for a specific firm or product.
- Duplicate skills — check the registry search before authoring.
Related skills
- [[openclaw-public-skill-registry]] — the registry that houses all contributed skills
- [[openclaw-eval-harness-shared]] — test your skill against the shared evaluation harness before submitting
- [[openclaw-skill-portability-claude-codex-gemini]] — adapt your skill for multiple AI providers