Publishing skills and plugins to ClawHub: owners, scopes, releases, and review

Publishing

Publishing sends a skill folder or plugin package to ClawHub under the owner you choose. ClawHub verifies your token can publish for that owner, validates the metadata, name, version, files, and source information, then stores the release and begins automated security checks.

If validation fails, nothing gets published. New releases may also remain unavailable through normal install and download surfaces until review completes.

Skills

The simplest way to publish is through the CLI. Sign in, then publish a local skill folder:

clawhub login
clawhub skill publish ./my-skill \
  --slug my-skill \
  --name "My Skill" \
  --owner <owner>

Use --owner <handle> when publishing to an org owner. Omit it to publish as the authenticated user. Publishing skips content that has not changed. A new skill starts at 1.0.0, and later changes automatically publish the next patch version. Pass --version only when you need an explicit version.

For catalog repos, use ClawHub's reusable skill-publish.yml workflow. It calls skill publish for each immediate skill folder under root (default: skills), or only the folder supplied as skill_path.

jobs:
  publish:
    uses: openclaw/clawhub/.github/workflows/skill-publish.yml@main
    with:
      owner: <owner>
      dry_run: false
    secrets:
      clawhub_token: ${{ secrets.CLAWHUB_TOKEN }}

Use dry_run: true to preview new and changed skills without publishing.

Plugins

Plugins use npm-style package names. Scoped package names include the owner in the first part of the name:

@owner/package-name

The scope must match the selected publish owner. If your package is named @openclaw/dronzer, it can only be published as @openclaw. If you publish as @vintageayu, rename the package to @vintageayu/dronzer.

This stops a package from claiming an org namespace that the publisher does not control.

If you are the rightful owner of an org, brand, package scope, owner handle, or namespace that is already claimed or reserved on ClawHub, open an Org / Namespace Claim issue with public, non-sensitive proof. See Org and Namespace Claims for what to include and what to keep out of public issues.

Before Publishing a Plugin

• Pick an owner that matches the package scope.
• Include openclaw.plugin.json. Code plugins also need package.json with openclaw.compat.pluginApi and openclaw.build.openclawVersion.
• To show a custom plugin catalog icon on the homepage and plugin list pages, add icon to openclaw.plugin.json with any HTTPS image URL.
• Include source repository and exact commit metadata, or use the CLI from a GitHub-backed checkout so it can detect them.
• Run clawhub package validate <source> before publishing. For package, manifest, SDK import, or artifact findings, see Plugin validation fixes.
• Run clawhub package publish <source> --dry-run before creating a release.
• Expect new releases to stay out of public install surfaces until automated security checks and verification finish.

Trusted Publishing for Packages

Package trusted publishing requires two steps to set up:

1. Publish the package once through normal manual or token-authenticated clawhub package publish. This creates the package row and establishes the package managers who can change its trusted publisher config.
2. A package manager sets the GitHub Actions trusted publisher config:

clawhub package trusted-publisher set @owner/package-name \
  --repository owner/repo \
  --workflow-filename package-publish.yml

After config is set, future supported GitHub Actions publishes can use OIDC or trusted publishing without storing a long-lived ClawHub token in the repository. The configured repository and workflow filename must match the GitHub Actions OIDC claim. If you also pass --environment <name>, the GitHub Actions environment claim must match that name exactly.

ClawHub verifies the configured GitHub repository when trusted publisher config is set. Public repositories can be verified through public GitHub metadata. Private repositories require ClawHub to have GitHub access to that repository, for example through a future ClawHub GitHub App installation or another authorized GitHub integration.

The current reusable package publish workflow supports secretless trusted publishing for workflow_dispatch publishes when id-token: write is available. Tag-push real publishes still need clawhub_token, so keep CLAWHUB_TOKEN available for tag releases, first publishes, untrusted packages, or break-glass publishes.

Inspect or remove the config with:

clawhub package trusted-publisher get @owner/package-name
clawhub package trusted-publisher delete @owner/package-name

Deleting trusted publisher config is the rollback path. It disables future trusted publish token minting until a package manager sets config again.

FAQ

Package scope must match selected owner

If the package scope and selected owner do not match, ClawHub rejects the publish:

Package scope "@openclaw" must match selected owner "@vintageayu".
Publish as "@openclaw" or rename this package to "@vintageayu/dronzer".

To fix it, either choose the owner named by the package scope, or rename the package so the scope matches the owner you can publish as.

If the package name already has the right scope but the package is owned by the wrong publisher, transfer ownership instead:

clawhub package transfer @opik/opik-openclaw --to opik

Use package or skill transfer only when you have admin access to both the current owner and the destination publisher. Package transfer does not let you publish into a scope you cannot manage.

If you do not have access to the current owner but believe your org, project, or brand is the rightful namespace owner, open an Org / Namespace Claim issue with public, non-sensitive proof for staff review. See Org and Namespace Claims before filing.

This protects org namespaces. A package named @openclaw/dronzer claims the @openclaw namespace, so only publishers with access to the @openclaw owner can publish it.