skill-scaffold

name: skill-scaffold description: Scaffold new OpenClaw skills with correct directory structure, SKILL.md, and run.ts template. user-invocable: false

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• You need to create a new reusable CLI tool / skill
• You find yourself doing the same manual task repeatedly across sessions
• You want to automate something that should be a standalone skill
• You need to build a utility that cron jobs or the agent can invoke

When NOT to Use

NEVER do any of these instead of using this skill:

• Create scripts in random directories (workspace, /tmp, home)
• Write automation scripts without SKILL.md documentation
• Skip the CLI contract (JSON stdout, stderr diagnostics, --help, exit codes)
• Create tools outside /etc/nixos/openclaw/skills/

Usage

./run.ts create --name "my-tool" --description "What this tool does"
./run.ts --help

What It Creates

/etc/nixos/openclaw/skills/<name>/
├── SKILL.md    # Discovery doc (edit triggers and examples after scaffolding)
└── run.ts      # Executable CLI template (implement your logic here)

After Scaffolding

1. Edit SKILL.md — add "When to use" triggers, examples, output format
2. Implement logic in run.ts — the template has parseArgs, help, JSON output ready
3. Add a symlink in module.nix (the skill tells you the exact line to add)
4. Run bun install if the skill needs external packages (add a package.json)
5. Rebuild: sudo /run/current-system/sw/bin/nixos-rebuild switch --flake /etc/nixos#nixos

Output

{ "action": "created", "name": "my-tool", "path": "/etc/nixos/openclaw/skills/my-tool", "files": ["SKILL.md", "run.ts"], "nextSteps": ["Edit SKILL.md with triggers and examples", "Implement logic in run.ts", "Add symlink to module.nix"] }