netclaw skill

Manage skills from the CLI — list what’s installed, validate new ones, wire up external sources. None of these commands need a running daemon.

Skills are markdown files following the AgentSkills.io format: a SKILL.md with YAML frontmatter describing what the skill does, what tools it needs, and how to invoke it. At runtime, the agent sees a compressed skill index on every session and reads full skill content on demand — skills inject procedural knowledge into context without bloating the base prompt.

Usage

netclaw skill [subcommand] [options]

Running netclaw skill with no subcommand defaults to list.

Subcommands

Subcommand	Description
list	List all discovered skills (default)
show <name>	Show skill details and full content
validate <path>	Validate a SKILL.md file’s frontmatter
remove <name>	Remove a native skill
issues	Show only scanner issues
search <query>	Search skills by name or description
source list	List configured external sources
source add <name> --path <dir>	Add a custom external source
source add <name> --well-known <alias>	Add a well-known source
source remove <name>	Remove an external source
source enable <name>	Enable an external source
source disable <name>	Disable an external source

Skill classifications

Three categories:

Source	Location	Mutable?
system	~/.netclaw/skills/.system/	No — managed by the daemon
native	~/.netclaw/skills/	Yes — user-created
external	Configured source directories	Manage at source

For a deeper look at how skills fit into netclaw’s architecture, see Skills Overview.

Listing skills

netclaw skill list

NAME                      SOURCE      VERSION     STATUS
commit                    native      1.0.0       ok
review-pr                 native      1.2.0       ok
akka-net-best-practices   external    -           ok
modern-csharp-standards   external    -           ok
session-context           system      -           ok
my-broken-skill           ?           -           MissingDescription

5 skill(s), 1 issue(s)

Skills with problems show their issue kind in the STATUS column. netclaw skill issues gives you the full details.

Showing skill details

netclaw skill show commit

Name:        commit
Display:     Commit Changes
Source:      native
Version:     1.0.0
Category:    git
License:     MIT
Path:        /home/user/.netclaw/skills/commit/SKILL.md
Flat file:   False
Tools:       bash git
Description: Create well-structured git commits with conventional commit messages.

--- content ---
(full SKILL.md content follows)

Validating a skill file

Catch frontmatter problems before deploying:

netclaw skill validate ./my-skill/SKILL.md

[OK] Valid skill file.
  Name:        my-skill
  Description: Does something useful.
  Version:     1.0.0
  License:     MIT

Once validated, drop the skill into ~/.netclaw/skills/ (directory-based or flat file) and it’ll appear on the next netclaw skill list.

A failing file tells you exactly what’s wrong:

netclaw skill validate ./broken-skill.md

[FAIL] MissingDescription: Skill file missing required 'description' field.

Searching skills

netclaw skill search "testing"

NAME                      SOURCE      VERSION     DESCRIPTION
snapshot-testing          external    -           Verify test output using snapshot...
integration-tests         external    -           Testcontainers patterns for .NET...

2 match(es)

Removing a skill

netclaw skill remove my-old-skill

Only native skills can be removed — system and external skills are read-only here.

Managing external sources

Point netclaw at skill directories from other tools (Claude Code, Open Code) or shared team paths.

Note: Skill feeds are a separate concept — server-based skill repositories synced by the daemon. This section covers local directory sources only.

List sources

netclaw skill source list

NAME                  ENABLED     TYPE            PATH / WELL-KNOWN
claude-skills         yes         well-known      claude-code
team-shared           yes         path            /opt/skills/team

When no sources are configured, netclaw checks for well-known directories and nudges you:

No external skill sources configured.

Detected well-known skill directories on disk:
  claude-code      /home/user/.claude/skills
Add one with: netclaw skill source add <name> --well-known <alias>

Add a well-known source

netclaw skill source add my-claude --well-known claude-code

The aliases map to these paths:

Alias	Scans
claude-code	~/.claude/skills/, ~/.claude/commands/, plus installed plugin marketplaces
open-code	~/.open-code/skills/

During netclaw init, you’re prompted to configure external skill sources:

The init wizard detects well-known directories automatically.

Add a custom path source

netclaw skill source add team-skills --path /opt/company/skills

The directory must exist. Netclaw scans for both directory-based skills (skill-name/SKILL.md) and flat files (skill-name.md).

Enable / disable a source

netclaw skill source disable team-skills
netclaw skill source enable team-skills

Disabled sources stay in config but won’t be scanned.

Remove a source

netclaw skill source remove team-skills

Removes the config entry only — skill files in the directory are untouched.

Skill file format

Two layouts work:

Directory-based:

my-skill/
  SKILL.md
  scripts/
    helper.sh
  references/
    api-docs.md
  assets/
    diagram.png

Flat file:

my-skill.md

The SKILL.md frontmatter:

---
name: my-skill
description: One-line description of what this skill does.
metadata:
  version: 1.0.0
license: MIT
compatibility: ["netclaw", "claude-code"]
allowed-tools: "bash git"
disable-model-invocation: false
user-invocable: true
argument-hint: "<branch-name>"
---

# My Skill

Skill instructions go here...

The display name is derived from the first # heading in the markdown body, falling back to title-casing the skill name.

Field	Required	Description
name	Yes	Identifier (must match directory/file name)
description	Yes	One-line summary
metadata.version	No	Semver version (nested under metadata:)
license	No	SPDX license identifier
compatibility	No	Which agents can use this skill
allowed-tools	No	Space-delimited list of tools the skill needs
disable-model-invocation	No	When true, prevents the model from auto-invoking this skill
user-invocable	No	When true, users can invoke the skill directly (e.g. /commit)
argument-hint	No	Hint text shown in command completion

Related commands

• netclaw init — configures external skill sources during onboarding
• netclaw mcp — manage tool servers that skills reference in allowed-tools
• netclaw status — shows loaded skill count at runtime

Resources

• AgentSkills.io — the SKILL.md format specification
• Cloudflare Agent Skills Discovery RFC — discovery protocol for skill feeds
• netclaw skill-server — self-hosted skill registry for organizations
• Skills Overview — how skills work at runtime
• Skill Feeds — server-synced skill repositories