manage-skill

Original：🇺🇸 English

Translated

Install, update, remove, and manage agent skills using `npx skills`. Use when asked to install, add, update, remove, or set up a new skill. Handles discovery, copy-mode installation to ~/.openclaw/skills/, and gateway restart so the skill is immediately available. Triggers on "install skill", "add skill", "update skill", "remove skill", "set up skill", "npx skills".

5installs

Sourcefree-energy-studio/skills

Added on2026-04-18

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add free-energy-studio/skills manage-skill

SKILL.md Content

View Translation Comparison →

Install Skill

Install skills into OpenClaw using the

npx skills

CLI (vercel-labs/skills).

Install Command

bash

npx skills add <source> --skill <name> -g -y --copy

Required flags for OpenClaw:

```
-g
```
/
```
--global
```
: Install to user-level (
```
~/.openclaw/skills/
```
)
```
-y
```
/
```
--yes
```
: Skip prompts
```
--copy
```
: Copy files — symlinks break when the temp clone is deleted

Optional flags:

```
-a openclaw
```
: Target only OpenClaw (skip other agents). Use when you only need the skill here.
```
--list
```
/
```
-l
```
: List available skills without installing
```
--all
```
: Install all skills to all agents without prompts
```
--full-depth
```
: Deep recursive search when skills aren't in standard locations

Source Formats

Always use a remote source (GitHub/GitLab). Local paths produce a broken hash in

skills-lock.json

, which means

npx skills update

will never detect changes. Remote sources get a real content hash and update correctly.

bash

# GitHub shorthand (clones default branch)
npx skills add owner/repo

# Full GitHub URL
npx skills add https://github.com/owner/repo

# Specific branch via tree URL
npx skills add https://github.com/owner/repo/tree/branch-name

# Specific branch + subpath
npx skills add https://github.com/owner/repo/tree/branch-name/path/to/skills

# Skill filter (find skill named "foo" in default branch)
npx skills add owner/repo@foo

# GitLab
npx skills add https://gitlab.com/org/repo

⚠️ Do NOT use local paths (

npx skills add ./path

) — the lock file hash will be empty and updates will silently fail.

⚠️
owner/repo@thing
is a skill name filter, NOT a branch ref. To target a non-default branch, use the full tree URL:

https://github.com/owner/repo/tree/branch-name

The CLI clones the repo's default branch. If the default branch doesn't have the skill, use the tree URL.

Skill Discovery

The CLI scans these locations for

SKILL.md

files with valid YAML frontmatter (

name

+

description

):

Root directory,

skills/

,

.openclaw/skills/

,

.agents/skills/

,

.claude/skills/

, and 25+ other agent dirs

.claude-plugin/marketplace.json

or

plugin.json

if present

Recursive fallback if no standard locations match

If a skill isn't found: Check that its SKILL.md has valid YAML frontmatter with

name

and

description

fields. Without both, the skill is invisible.

Post-Install Checklist

Verify copy (not symlink):
bash
```
ls -la ~/.openclaw/skills/<name>/SKILL.md
```
If symlink → reinstall with
```
--copy
```
.
Restart gateway so OpenClaw loads the new skill: Use the gateway restart tool.

Other Commands

bash

# List installed skills
npx skills list          # or: npx skills ls
npx skills ls -g         # global only

# Search for skills
npx skills find [query]

# Check for updates
npx skills check

# Update all installed skills
npx skills update

# Remove a skill
npx skills remove <name> -g -y

# Create new skill template
npx skills init [name]

Updating an Installed Skill

bash

npx skills update -g

Or remove and reinstall:

bash

npx skills remove <name> -g -y
npx skills add <source> --skill <name> -g -y --copy

Then restart the gateway.

Troubleshooting

"No matching skills found": SKILL.md missing or lacks
```
name
```
/
```
description
```
frontmatter

Wrong branch cloned: Use

https://github.com/owner/repo/tree/branch

— not

owner/repo@branch

Skill not in available_skills: Restart the gateway
Permission errors: Check write access to
```
~/.openclaw/skills/
```

Reference

Skills directory: skills.sh
Agent Skills spec: agentskills.io
OpenClaw skills docs: docs.openclaw.ai/tools/skills

manage-skill

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

Install Skill

Install Command

Source Formats

Skill Discovery

Post-Install Checklist

Other Commands

Updating an Installed Skill

Troubleshooting

Reference