How to Find and Install Free OpenClaw Skills

The OpenClaw ecosystem has over 3,500 skills. Most of them aren’t worth installing. Some are abandoned. Some barely work. Some do things so niche that you’ll never need them.

If you’ve already set up your agent and want to add abilities, the question isn’t whether skills exist — it’s which ones are good and how to get them running fast. That’s what Oh My OpenClaw is for. We’ve gone through the ecosystem and picked the 433 skills that actually work, are maintained, and do something useful. This guide walks you through finding, installing, and testing skills from start to finish.

What Is Oh My OpenClaw?

Oh My OpenClaw is a free, open directory of hand-picked OpenClaw skills. We test every skill before listing it. If it’s broken, unmaintained, or does something sketchy, it doesn’t make the cut.

Here’s how it compares to the full ecosystem:

Think of ClawHub as the app store where anyone can publish. Think of us as the curated list your friend sends you when you ask “which ones are actually good?”

Every skill on the site has a description, category, author info, and the exact command to install it. If a skill needs an API key or extra setup, we note that on the page. For the full setup walkthrough — including how to get OpenClaw running if you haven’t yet — check the install guide.

Step 1: Browse Skills

Start on the Oh My OpenClaw homepage. The main page shows all 433 skills organized by category, with the most popular ones surfaced first.

If you already know what type of skill you want, jump straight to a category:

• Productivity — task management, calendars, project tools
• Media — image generation, video editing, audio processing
• Development — databases, deployment, code tools
• Automation — browser control, web scraping, workflows

You can also check the Best Skills 2026 page. That’s our top-rated picks across every category — the skills we’d install on our own machines if we were starting from scratch.

The fastest way to find something specific is the search bar. Hit Cmd+K (or Ctrl+K on Windows/Linux) and start typing. It filters by skill name and tags in real time. Looking for something that handles images? Type “image” and you’ll see every skill tagged with image generation, image editing, OCR, and so on.

Browsing without a plan works too. Some of the best discoveries happen when you’re scrolling through a category and spot something you didn’t know existed.

Step 2: Pick a Skill

Let’s use a real example. Say you want your agent to generate images.

Go to fal-ai. This is one of the most popular skills on the site — it connects your agent to fal.ai’s API for generating images, videos, and audio through models like FLUX and SDXL.

Every skill page on Oh My OpenClaw shows you:

• Author — who built and maintains it
• Description — what it does in plain language
• Category — where it fits (Media, in this case)
• Tags — specific capabilities
• Install command — copy-paste ready

Before installing anything, look for skills in the Trellis Picks section. These are skills that the curation team has hand-verified — tested on real setups, confirmed working, and checked for issues. If a skill has a Trellis Pick badge, you can install it with extra confidence that it won’t waste your time.

A few things to check on any skill page before installing:

1. Does it need an API key? Some skills connect to external services. fal-ai needs a fal.ai API key. Skills like clickup need a ClickUp API token. Free skills that don’t touch external services won’t need anything extra.

2. Is the author active? Click through to the GitHub repo. Recent commits mean the skill is maintained. A repo that hasn’t been touched in six months might break when the next OpenClaw update ships.

3. Does the description match what you need? Read it carefully. A skill called “video editor” might only handle format conversion, not actual editing.

Step 3: Install via ClawHub

Once you’ve picked a skill, installation is one command. Open your terminal and run:

clawhub install <skill-name>

For fal-ai, that’s:

clawhub install fal-ai

Here’s what happens behind the scenes when you run that command:

1. ClawHub downloads the skill’s SKILL.md file and any associated resources
2. The skill gets placed in your ~/.openclaw/skills/ directory
3. The skill registers with your agent’s runtime

After the install finishes, verify it’s there:

openclaw skills list

You should see fal-ai in the output. If you’re running your agent already, you may need to reload skills:

openclaw skills reload

Setting Up API Keys

Some skills need environment variables or API keys to work. This is the part where people get stuck, so pay attention.

For fal-ai, you need a fal.ai API key. Set it as an environment variable:

export FAL_KEY=your_key_here

Or add it to your shell profile (~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc) so it persists across sessions.

Each skill page on Oh My OpenClaw lists any required keys or setup steps. If you install a skill and it doesn’t respond, the first thing to check is whether you missed an environment variable. The skill page will tell you exactly which one.

Not every skill needs this. Plenty of skills — especially ones that work with local files or use built-in system tools — install and run with zero configuration.

Step 4: Test It

After installing, send your agent a message that triggers the skill. Don’t try anything complex — start with the simplest possible prompt.

For fal-ai, try:

Generate an image of a mountain lake at sunset.

If the skill is installed and your API key is set, your agent will call the fal.ai API and return an image. The whole process takes a few seconds.

If nothing happens, check three things:

1. Is the skill loaded? Run openclaw skills list and confirm it’s there.
2. Is your API key set? Run echo $FAL_KEY (or whatever environment variable the skill needs) and make sure it returns a value.
3. Is your agent running? If you installed the skill while the agent was off, start it with openclaw start. If it was already running, reload with openclaw skills reload.

Once the test works, you’re done. The skill is installed, configured, and responding. Move on to the next one, or start using it for real work.

Popular Skill Categories

Not sure where to start? Here’s a quick map of the most popular categories on Oh My OpenClaw, with real skill examples from each.

The Productivity and Media categories tend to be the most useful for people who aren’t developers. If you are a developer, the Development and Automation categories have tools that replace a surprising number of manual workflows — things like spinning up database branches through conversation instead of clicking through a dashboard.

Every category page shows you the full list of curated skills in that area, sorted by popularity.

FAQ

Are all skills free?

Yes. Every skill listed on Oh My OpenClaw is free to install. The skill files themselves cost nothing and are open source. Some skills connect to paid external APIs — for example, fal-ai uses the fal.ai API, which has its own pricing. But the skill itself is always free. You’ll never pay to download or install anything from Oh My OpenClaw.

Do I need Moltbot or Clawdbot?

Skills work with any OpenClaw-compatible agent. Moltbot (the current agent) and Clawdbot (the old name for the same agent) both work. If you’ve built a custom agent on top of the OpenClaw framework, skills work there too. The skill format is standard across the ecosystem.

How do I uninstall a skill?

Same pattern as installing, different verb:

clawhub uninstall <skill-name>

For example:

clawhub uninstall fal-ai

The skill gets removed from your ~/.openclaw/skills/ directory and your agent stops using it. No leftover configuration to clean up.

Can I submit my own skill?

We’re working on a public submission process. For now, skills are added to Oh My OpenClaw through our internal curation process — we find skills on ClawHub, test them, and add the good ones. If you’ve built a skill and want it listed, the best path right now is to publish it on ClawHub first. We regularly scan for new additions.

Next Steps

Now that you know how to find, install, and test skills, you’ve got the whole workflow down. The next move is to build a setup that matches how you actually use your agent.

If you want specific recommendations, read Best OpenClaw Productivity Skills for 2026 — we picked the top productivity tools and explained why each one earned its spot.

Or skip the reading and go straight to the homepage. Search for what you need, install it, and start using it. That’s the whole point.