OpenClaw Community Skills Guide: Unlock Your AI Assistant's Superpowers

Honestly, when I first saw that OpenClaw had 565+ community skills, I was blown away. Turns out installing an AI assistant isn’t just about chatting—it can control your Tesla, manage smart home devices, auto-reply to Gmail, and even generate images and post to Twitter.

If you’ve just installed OpenClaw and don’t know which skills to start with, this article is for you. I’ll recommend some of the most practical and popular community skills, show you how to install and use them, and help transform your AI assistant into a true super assistant.

What is the OpenClaw Skills System?

Before diving into recommendations, let me briefly explain what Skills are.

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OpenClaw’s Skills system is like installing various “plugins” for your AI, enabling it to do more than just chat—it can execute specific tasks. For example:

• Control your smart light bulbs
• Check your Tesla’s battery level
• Automatically filter urgent emails in Gmail
• Generate AI images
• Post tweets on Twitter

Currently, the OpenClaw ecosystem has 565+ community-contributed skills. These skills are centralized on clawhub.ai and in the awesome-openclaw-skills repository on GitHub.

Skills fall into three main categories:

1. Built-in Skills - 50+ core skills that come with OpenClaw
2. Community Skills - Developer-shared skills covering various scenarios
3. Custom Skills - Your own personally developed skills

How to Install Skills?

OpenClaw offers three installation methods. I’ll introduce them in order of simplicity.

Method 1: GUI Installation (Most Recommended)

This is the most intuitive method, suitable for most people.

1. Open your browser and access the OpenClaw console (default http://localhost:18789)
2. Click Skills in the navigation bar
3. Type the skill name in the search box, like “calendar”
4. Find the skill you want and click the Install button
5. If configuration is needed (like API keys), enter as prompted
6. Installation complete, the skill is ready to use

The whole process is quick—basically 10 seconds to install a skill.

Method 2: CLI Installation

If you prefer command line, use this method.

# View all available skills
openclaw skills list

# Install specific skill
openclaw skills install <skill-name>

# View installed skills
openclaw skills list --installed

The advantage of CLI is batch operations, suitable for installing multiple skills at once.

Method 3: Manual Installation

For developers or users wanting customization, manual installation is available.

# Clone skill repository
git clone https://github.com/username/skill-repo.git

# Navigate to OpenClaw config directory
cd ~/.openclaw/skills

# Link the skill
ln -s /path/to/skill-repo <skill-name>

Smart Home Skills

This is one of OpenClaw’s standout application scenarios. If you have smart devices at home, these skills are definitely worth trying.

Home Assistant: The Hub for Whole-Home Intelligence

Home Assistant is the heavyweight champion of open-source smart home platforms, and OpenClaw’s integration with it is very robust.

Main Features:

• Voice control of all smart devices
• Scene automation
• Device status queries
• Unified management across brands

Installation Method:

# GUI installation
Search for "Home Assistant" on the Skills page, click Install

# Or CLI installation
openclaw skills install home-assistant

Configuration Steps:

1. Generate a Long-Lived Access Token in Home Assistant
2. Enter the Token and Home Assistant URL in OpenClaw skill configuration
3. Done!

Usage Examples:

After installation, you can message your AI directly on WhatsApp or Telegram:

"Turn off the living room lights"
"Set the bedroom AC to 25 degrees"
"Open the living room curtains"
"Check the front door camera"

The AI will automatically call Home Assistant’s API to control the corresponding devices. My personal favorite is saying “good night” before bed—the AI turns off lights, locks doors, and lowers the AC temperature—all without lifting a finger.

Tesla Control: A Blessing for Vehicle Owners

If you’re a Tesla owner, this skill is absolutely essential.

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Main Features:

• Remote lock/unlock
• Start climate control for heating/cooling
• Check battery level and charging status
• View vehicle location
• Open windows and trunk

Installation and Configuration:

# Install skill
openclaw skills install tesla

# Configure OAuth authentication
# Requires Tesla account and password

Usage Scenarios:

"Lock the car"
"Turn on the car's AC, temperature 22 degrees"
"How much battery does the car have?"

Security Reminder:

Tesla skill has significant permissions. Only use on trusted devices and strictly control WhatsApp/Telegram whitelists.

Productivity Tool Skills

Beyond hardware control, OpenClaw is also powerful for office automation.

Gmail Management (gog Skill)

This is one of my personal favorite skills, significantly boosting email processing efficiency.

Main Features:

• Automatically scan inbox and identify urgent emails
• Intelligently draft replies
• Calendar event management
• Google Drive file operations

Installation Steps:

# Install gog skill (Google Workspace CLI)
openclaw skills install gog

OAuth Configuration:

1. Create a project in Google Cloud
2. Enable Gmail API and Calendar API
3. Create OAuth Client ID (select “Desktop app”)
4. Download JSON file
5. Provide JSON file path in OpenClaw
6. Complete OAuth authorization flow

Practical Usage:

"Scan my Gmail, any urgent emails?"
"Draft an email to John saying tomorrow's meeting moved to 3 PM"
"Check today's calendar"

Most impressively, AI can proactively handle emails for you. You can set rules like: “Every morning at 9 AM scan emails”—the AI executes automatically without manual triggering.

GitHub CLI Integration

Essential skill for developers.

Main Features:

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• View Issues and Pull Requests
• Code reviews
• Commit management
• Workflow automation

Installation:

openclaw skills install github-cli

Usage Examples:

"List open Issues in my GitHub repos"
"Show details for PR #123"
"Create a new Issue: Fix login page bug"

Creative and Media Skills

These skills are mainly for content creation and media processing.

Image Generation and Processing

Image Generation:

After integrating DALL-E or Midjourney, generate images directly:

"Generate a beach at sunset image"
"Draw a cat wearing a hat"

Image Processing:

OpenClaw can use Python Imaging Library (PIL) to process images, like resizing, adding watermarks, and format conversion.

Audio and Music

Spotify Control:

openclaw skills install spotify

Voice control playback, skip songs, adjust volume, search songs.

Development and Technical Skills

These skills give AI deeper system access—powerful but requiring careful use.

Shell Command Execution

OpenClaw can execute Shell commands for system management and automation.

Usage Scenarios:

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• System monitoring
• Batch file operations
• Scheduled tasks

Security Reminder:
This skill has significant permissions. Be sure to use in isolated environments and strictly control access whitelists.

File Management

Local file operation skills can perform batch renaming, file search, automatic categorization, etc.

Top 10 Recommended Skills

If you’re a beginner and don’t know where to start, I recommend trying in this order:

1. Home Assistant - Must-have for smart home users
2. Gmail Management (gog) - Boost email efficiency
3. Tesla Control - Blessing for vehicle owners
4. Image Generation - Creative tool
5. GitHub CLI - Developer’s tool
6. Twitter/X - Social media management
7. Spotify - Music control
8. Shell Commands - System management
9. File Management - Organizer’s blessing
10. Calendar Sync - Time management

Skill Configuration Best Practices

1. Security Isolation

Recommend running OpenClaw in a dedicated environment, not mixed with production systems. Options included VPS deployment or Docker.

2. Dedicated API Keys

Create independent API keys for OpenClaw, don’t reuse keys from other services.

3. Minimize Permissions

Only grant necessary permissions, for example Gmail skill only reads emails, doesn’t delete.

4. Regular Updates

Skills are continuously updated, remember to check regularly: openclaw skills update --all.

Final Thoughts

OpenClaw’s skill ecosystem is truly rich, covering nearly every aspect of life and work.

My recommendations:

1. Start with basic skills - High-frequency ones like Home Assistant
2. Explore as needed - Choose skills based on your scenarios
3. Pay attention to security - Permission management is critical
4. Stay updated - Community has new skills weekly

If you haven’t started exploring OpenClaw’s skill system yet, now is the best time. Start with a simple skill and gradually discover your AI assistant’s infinite possibilities.

References

• awesome-openclaw-skills Repository
• OpenClaw Official Documentation
• DataCamp - OpenClaw Skills Tutorial

6 min read · Published on: Feb 5, 2026 · Modified on: Feb 5, 2026

Easton

AI & Intelligence