ClawdHub Publish Helper

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name: publish-skill version: 1.0.1 description: Prepare and publish an OpenClaw skill to ClawHub. Handles PII/secret auditing, generalization, env var extraction, directory scaffolding, git init, and the clawhub publish command. Use when publishing a new skill or updating an existing one on ClawHub.

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Publish Skill

Prepare and publish an OpenClaw skill to ClawHub. This skill codifies the audit → generalize → publish workflow.

When To Use

Publishing a new skill to ClawHub

Updating an existing published skill

When the user says "publish this skill", "prepare for publishing", "make a publishable copy"

NOT for installing skills from ClawHub (that's npx clawhub@latest install)

Workflow

Step 1: Audit the Live Skill

Before creating any copy, audit the source skill for secrets and PII:

1. Read every file in the skill directory recursively 2. Check for these categories of sensitive content:

| Category | Examples | Action | |----------|----------|--------| | Secrets | API keys, tokens, passwords, private keys | Must remove | | Paths | Absolute paths (/home/username/..., /Users/...) | Replace with env var or ~ relative | | Discord IDs | Channel IDs, user IDs, guild IDs, message IDs | Remove or replace with env var | | Timezones | Hardcoded IANA timezone strings | Replace with env var | | Personal data | Real names, emails, phone numbers, medication names | Remove or generalize | | Network info | IP addresses, internal URLs, port numbers | Remove or replace with placeholders | | Custom identifiers | User-specific labels, internal project names | Generalize |

3. Report findings to the user before proceeding — do not silently modify

Step 2: Create Publishable Copy

Create a separate directory (never modify the live skill):

$CLAWHUB_DEFAULT_DIR/-skill/

Default base: ~/projects/skills (override via CLAWHUB_DEFAULT_DIR env var).

Directory structure:

-skill/
├── SKILL.md           # Manifest (generalized)
├── README.md          # User-facing docs
├── .gitignore         # Standard ignores
├── scripts/           # Script files (generalized)
├── references/        # Optional reference docs
└── ...                # Any other skill-specific files

Step 3: Generalize Content

For each file in the skill:

SKILL.md frontmatter:

Add env: block declaring all extracted env vars with descriptions and required/optional

Remove any personal identifiers from description

Scripts (Python, Shell, etc.):

Replace hardcoded paths with os.environ.get("VAR", fallback) / env var reads

Replace hardcoded timezones with env var (UTC fallback)

Remove now()/utc_now() fallbacks that bypass source timestamps — raise errors instead

Remove personal data (medication names become empty lists with edit instructions, etc.)

Remove dead code and unused imports

Documentation (Markdown):

Remove Discord IDs, channel names, user IDs

Replace personal examples with generic ones

Keep timezone/ID references only as example values (e.g. "e.g. America/Los_Angeles")

Remove internal URLs/IPs

Shell wrappers:

Use relative path resolution: SCRIPT="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")" && pwd)/tracker.py"

Remove hardcoded absolute paths

Step 4: Verify Clean State

Run a final grep across all files:

grep -rn "hardcoded_pattern1\|hardcoded_pattern2\|..." --include="*.py" --include="*.md" --include="*.sh" .

Verify:

No secrets or tokens remain

No absolute paths containing usernames

No Discord/user IDs

No personal data (real names, specific medication names, etc.)

Timezone strings only in examples/comments, never as runtime defaults

All config via env vars with sensible defaults

Step 5: Git Init and Commit

git init
git add -A
git commit -m "Initial publishable copy — no PII, no secrets"

Step 6: Publish (with user confirmation)

Always confirm with the user before publishing.

npx clawhub@latest publish --slug  --version  --name "" /absolute/path/to/skill-dir

Gotchas:

Use absolute paths, not . — cwd may not propagate through exec/shell layers

--slug is required — without it, the CLI picks up the directory name

Slug naming is competitive — every generic name (publish-skill, skill-publisher, etc.) is likely taken. Pick something unique or namespaced (e.g. myname-publish-helper)

Rate limited — if you get slug collisions repeatedly, wait 50s between retries

Common version bumps:

New skill: 1.0.0

Bug fix: patch bump (e.g. 1.0.0 → 1.0.1)

New feature: minor bump (e.g. 1.0.0 → 1.1.0)

After publishing, report the slug, version, and install command to the user.

Common Patterns

Extracting env vars from hardcoded values

Before:

TIMEZONE = ZoneInfo("America/Los_Angeles")
WORKSPACE = "/home/user/.openclaw/workspace"

After:

TZ_STR = os.environ.get("MEDICATION_TIMEZONE", "UTC")
TIMEZONE = ZoneInfo(TZ_STR)
WORKSPACE = os.environ.get("WORKSPACE", os.path.expanduser("~/.openclaw/workspace"))

Replacing personal config with user-editable sections

Before:

MORNING_MEDS = ["RealMedA", "RealMedB"]
KNOWN_MEDS = ["RealMedA", "RealMedB", "RealMedC"]

After:

# Edit these lists to match your regimen
MORNING_MEDS: list[str] = []  # e.g. ["MedA", "MedB"]
KNOWN_MEDS: list[str] = []   # e.g. ["MedA", "MedB", "MedC"]

Removing timestamp fallbacks

Before:

dt_utc = datetime.fromisoformat(ts) if ts else datetime.now(timezone.utc)

After:

if not ts:
    raise ValueError("timestamp_utc is required — source message timestamp must be provided")
dt_utc = datetime.fromisoformat(ts.replace("Z", "+00:00"))

Changelog

Add --changelog to the publish command for release notes. Example:

npx clawhub@latest publish --slug my-skill --version 1.1.0 --changelog "Added env var support, fixed timestamp handling" .

ClawHub CLI Reference

| Command | Purpose | |---------|---------| | npx clawhub@latest login | Authenticate (browser callback) | | npx clawhub@latest whoami | Verify auth | | npx clawhub@latest publish --slug X --version Y . | Publish from current dir | | npx clawhub@latest inspect | View published metadata | | npx clawhub@latest search | Search registry |

Publish must run from inside the skill directory (requires SKILL.md in cwd).

Required Files

SKILL.md — this file

references/checklist.md — quick audit checklist

Notes

Never modify the live skill — always create a separate copy

The publishable copy should work for anyone who installs it with minimal config

If a skill can't be fully generalized (e.g. deeply personal workflows), document what the user needs to configure

ClawHub registry may not display env: frontmatter — that's a registry display issue, not a skill issue

Never modify the live skill — always create a separate copy

The publishable copy should work for anyone who installs it with minimal config

If a skill can't be fully generalized (e.g. deeply personal workflows), document what the user needs to configure

ClawHub registry may not display env: frontmatter — that's a registry display issue, not a skill issue