Skill Publisher

A generic publishing workflow for any Claude Code skill. Package, validate, and publish to ClawHub (OpenClaw), Hermes Agent, and anthropics/skills (Claude Code).

When to Use

• User wants to publish a skill they've built to one or more marketplaces
• User needs a bilingual (EN/ZH) README for their skill
• User wants to validate SKILL.md format before publishing
• User needs help with clawhub publish or GitHub PR submission

Prerequisites

Before using this skill, check for the following in the environment (or ask the user):

Authentication

These tokens are pre-configured in ~/.env and shell environment. Read them automatically — do not ask the user:

If a variable is missing, read ~/.env first, then ask the user.

Network Connectivity

Before any GitHub API call, test connectivity first:

curl -s -m 5 https://api.github.com/repos/NousResearch/hermes-agent > /dev/null 2>&1 && echo "direct OK" || echo "direct FAIL"

If direct access fails (common in restricted networks), load proxy from ~/.env:

source ~/.env
# ~/.env may contain (possibly commented-out):
# https_proxy=http://192.168.28.92:7897
# http_proxy=http://192.168.28.92:7897
# Export the proxy ONLY if direct access failed:
export https_proxy=http://192.168.28.92:7897
export http_proxy=http://192.168.28.92:7897
# Re-test with proxy:
https_proxy=$https_proxy curl -s -m 10 https://api.github.com/ > /dev/null 2>&1 && echo "proxy OK" || echo "proxy FAIL"

Fallback strategy (ordered by priority):

1. Direct HTTPS access — works in unrestricted networks
2. Proxy from ~/.env — read https_proxy/http_proxy values; if commented out, uncomment and export them for this session only
3. SSH on port 22 — git@github.com:... works without proxy in most environments; use for git clone/push, but NOT for GitHub REST API (curl/gh api)

When proxy is also down: skip GitHub API PR creation. Push branch via SSH and instruct user to create PR manually via browser.

Workflow

Step 1: Validate Source Skill

python3 ~/.skills/skill-publisher/scripts/validate_skill.py <skill-path>

Checks: SKILL.md exists, valid YAML frontmatter, required fields (name, description), name format (lowercase, hyphens), description <= 1024 chars, no hardcoded secrets, file size <= 100,000 chars.

Step 2: Generate Publish Package

python3 ~/.skills/skill-publisher/scripts/generate_package.py \
  --source ~/.skills/<skill-name> \
  --output /tmp/publish-<skill-name> \
  --platforms clawhub hermes anthropics

Produces:

/tmp/publish-<skill-name>/
├── SKILL.md            # Copied from source
├── README.md           # Bilingual (EN/ZH) README with examples
├── examples/           # Copied from source skill
└── .clawhub.json       # ClawHub manifest

Step 3: Platform-Specific Publishing

ClawHub (OpenClaw)

CRITICAL: Always pass --slug <skill-name> to prevent ClawHub from using the directory name as the slug. Without --slug, a publish from /tmp/publish-my-skill/ would create a duplicate entry named publish-my-skill instead of my-skill.

clawhub publish /tmp/publish-<skill-name> --version <version> --slug <skill-name>

If CLI unavailable: install npm i -g clawhub or upload via clawhub.ai.

Hermes Agent (GitHub PR)

Target: NousResearch/hermes-agent → skills/creative/<skill-name>/SKILL.md

1. Fork repo on GitHub
2. Clone fork, copy SKILL.md to skills/creative/<skill-name>/
3. Commit, push, create PR

anthropics/skills (GitHub PR)

Target: anthropics/skills → skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md

Same process as Hermes, different repo.

Step 4: Verify

# ClawHub
curl -s "https://clawhub.ai/api/v1/skills?slug=<skill-name>"
# Hermes / anthropics — check raw GitHub URLs

Helper Scripts

Common Pitfalls

1. SKILL.md first bytes must be --- — no BOM, no blank line
2. ClawHub rejects hardcoded secrets — scan scripts/ before publishing
3. Hermes requires metadata — metadata.hermes.tags and related_skills
4. Network issues — always test connectivity first. If direct HTTPS fails, load proxy from ~/.env and re-test. If proxy also fails, use SSH (git@github.com:...) for git operations and tell user to create PR manually via browser
5. ClawHub slug mismatch — always pass --slug <skill-name> when publishing; otherwise the directory name becomes the slug, creating a wrong/duplicate entry (e.g. publish-my-skill instead of my-skill)