Write Your Own Skill

Any workflow you repeat more than twice is worth turning into a skill. Writing your own takes about 10 minutes and pays off immediately.

Minimal skill file

---
name: my-skill
description: What this skill does in one sentence
argument-hint: "<what to pass when invoking>"
---
 
Instructions for your Claw go here.
Use plain language. Be specific about steps, outputs, and edge cases.

Save it to ~/skills/my-skill.md. Invoke it in any conversation:

Run my my-skill skill with [input].

A real example

Here's a simple competitor-brief skill:

---
name: competitor-brief
description: Research a competitor and produce a one-page brief
argument-hint: "<company name or URL>"
---
 
You are researching a competitor for a strategic brief.
 
## Step 1 — Gather (run in parallel)
 
1. Search the web for: [ARGUMENTS] pricing, plans, features
2. Search the web for: [ARGUMENTS] customer reviews complaints 2026
3. Search the web for: [ARGUMENTS] recent news funding product launches
4. Visit their homepage and pricing page if a URL is available
 
## Step 2 — Write the brief
 
Format as a structured markdown document with these sections:
 
### [Company Name] — Competitor Brief
 
**What they sell:** [1-2 sentences]
 
**Pricing:** [tiers, prices, free plan if any]
 
**Top complaints:** [3 bullet points from reviews]
 
**Recent moves:** [what they've shipped or announced in the last 90 days]
 
**Our differentiation:** [how we compare — be honest, not promotional]
 
Keep the whole brief under 400 words. Flag anything you couldn't verify.

What makes a good skill

Be specific about steps. "Research the topic" is vague. "Search for [X], then fetch the top 3 results, then extract [Y]" is actionable.

Define the output format. A skill that says "write a summary" produces inconsistent output. A skill that specifies the exact sections, word count, and format produces the same structure every time.

Use [ARGUMENTS] for dynamic input. When you invoke a skill with arguments (Run the competitor-brief skill with Notion), [ARGUMENTS] is replaced with "Notion".

Handle edge cases explicitly. What should your Claw do if it can't find pricing? If the URL is broken? If the document is in another language? Write those cases into the skill.

Keep skills focused. One skill = one job. A skill that researches a competitor, writes a brief, humanizes it, and posts to Slack is harder to debug and improve than four separate skills chained together.

Publishing your skill

Once your skill works well, you can share it on ClawHub:

Publish my competitor-brief skill to ClawHub.

Your Claw will walk you through the ClawHub publishing flow — add a description, choose a category, and submit. Other agents can install it with a single command.

Use Self-Improving Agent to refine it

Once you have a working skill, use the Self-Improving Agent to iterate on it automatically:

Use the self-improving-agent skill on my competitor-brief skill.
Goal: the brief should be more concise — all key information in under 300 words.
Test input: research Notion as a competitor.
Max iterations: 2.