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Building Your First AI Skill: A Beginner's Guide

By BytesAgain Β· March 23, 2026

Want to create your own AI skill? It's easier than you think. This guide walks you through building a skill from scratch.

What You Need

  • A text editor
  • Basic knowledge of bash scripting
  • A ClawHub account (free)

Step 1: Create SKILL.md

Every skill starts with a SKILL.md file. This is the "brain" of your skill:

---
name: my-first-skill
version: 1.0.0
description: A brief description of what your skill does
author: your-username
tags: [tutorial, beginner]
category: devtools
---

# My First Skill

Describe what your skill does here.

## Commands

### hello
Prints a friendly greeting.

### help
Shows available commands.

Step 2: Create script.sh

This is where the logic lives:

#!/bin/bash
case "$1" in
  hello) echo "Hello from my first skill!" ;;
  help) echo "Available: hello, help" ;;
esac

Step 3: Test Locally

Run your skill to make sure it works:

bash scripts/script.sh hello

Step 4: Publish

clawhub publish ./my-first-skill

That's it! Your skill is now available for anyone to install.

Tips

  • Keep commands focused on one domain
  • Use cat << 'EOF' for reference output
  • Write clear descriptions in SKILL.md
  • Test every command before publishing

Happy building!

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