TOPIC / SKILLS

OpenClaw beginner skills: what to install first

Recommended first skills: web-search, browser, summarize, file-manager, find-skills, self-improving-agent. Install commands and three-phase order.

Best for

  • Newly installed OpenClaw users choosing a first skill set
  • People validating real tasks before expanding capability breadth
  • Users trying to keep permission scope and maintenance cost narrow

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Current stage

Expand / Add scope later

Milestone page

Only after the baseline is stable does it make sense to add more skills and broaden scope with confidence.

Risk level

Medium risk

Last review

Reviewed · 2026-03-21

Prerequisites

2

Start with a small, practical set

Install OpenClaw via curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash, then init with openclaw onboard --install-daemon. Install skills with:

openclaw skills install @clawhub/<skill-name>

ClawHub has 5,700+ skills. Skills with the verified badge have been reviewed by the OpenClaw team.

Phase 1: Must-install

Web search, browser, and summarization cover most early workflows:

openclaw skills install @clawhub/web-search
openclaw skills install @clawhub/browser
openclaw skills install @clawhub/summarize

Validate with real tasks before adding more.

Phase 2: Soon-after

Once the first three work reliably:

openclaw skills install @clawhub/file-manager
openclaw skills install @clawhub/find-skills
  • file-manager — Safe read/write in the workspace
  • find-skills — Discover and install other skills from the terminal

Phase 3: Later

When the baseline is stable:

openclaw skills install @clawhub/self-improving-agent

This skill lets the agent improve its own behavior over time—useful but not required for day one.

Rate limiting note

If you see Rate limit exceeded when installing from ClawHub, it is usually the registry, not your config. Wait and retry before changing your environment.

ClawHub verified badge

Skills with the verified badge have been reviewed by the OpenClaw team. Prefer these when choosing among similar skills.

Check installation

openclaw skills list
openclaw doctor

Dashboard: http://127.0.0.1:18789/

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