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=""  # 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:

Optional but recommended:

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:

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:

git commit -m "Initial release:  v"

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  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 / \
  --public \
  --description "" \
  --source . \
  --push

2.4 Add GitHub Topics

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

gh repo edit / --add-topic agent-skill,claude-code-skill

Additional topic suggestions based on skill content:

2.5 Update References

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

# 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  2>&1

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

3.3 Publish

npx clawhub publish "$SKILL_DIR" \
  --slug  \
  --name "" \
  --version  \
  --changelog ""

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 

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: /" \
  --body "$(cat <<'ISSUE_EOF'
Skill Information
Repository: https://github.com//
Skill name: 
Install: \npx skills add /\
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:

Phase 5: Installation Verification

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

5.1 skills.sh

npx skills add / -g -y
Verify: check installation path and file completeness
ls ~/.agents/skills// || ls ~/.claude/skills//
Cleanup
npx skills remove  -g -y

5.2 ClawdHub

npx clawhub install 
Verify
ls ~/clawd/skills//
Cleanup
npx clawhub uninstall  --yes

5.3 Manual Git Clone

git clone https://github.com//.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 / -g -y | OK / FAIL |
| ClawdHub | clawhub install  | OK / FAIL |
| Manual | git clone ... | OK / FAIL |

Phase 6: Post-publish Summary

Present a final summary with all links and commands:

# Published:  v
Links
GitHub: https://github.com//
ClawdHub: https://clawhub.ai// (if published)
skills.sh: pending indexing (issue #NNN)
Install Commands
skills.sh (recommended)
npx skills add / -g -y
ClawdHub
clawhub install 
Manual
git clone https://github.com//.git ~/.claude/skills/
Next Steps
[ ] Wait for skills.sh indexing (issue #NNN)
[ ] Share the GitHub link
[ ] Consider creating a GitHub Release with tag v

Important Notes

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"