# Creating Custom Skills 🛠

Clawdbot is designed to be easily extensible. "Skills" are the primary way to add new capabilities to your assistant.

## What is a Skill?
A skill is a directory containing a `SKILL.md` file (which provides instructions and tool definitions to the LLM) and optionally some scripts or resources.

## Step-by-Step: Your First Skill

### 1. Create the Directory
Skills live in your workspace, usually `~/clawd/skills/`. Create a new folder for your skill:
```bash
mkdir -p ~/clawd/skills/hello-world
```

### 2. Define the `SKILL.md`
Create a `SKILL.md` file in that directory. This file uses YAML frontmatter for metadata and Markdown for instructions.

```markdown
---
name: hello_world
description: A simple skill that says hello.
---

# Hello World Skill
When the user asks for a greeting, use the `echo` tool to say "Hello from your custom skill!".
```

### 3. Add Tools (Optional)
You can define custom tools in the frontmatter or instruct the agent to use existing system tools (like `bash` or `browser`).

### 4. Refresh Clawdbot
Ask your agent to "refresh skills" or restart the gateway. Clawdbot will discover the new directory and index the `SKILL.md`.

## Best Practices
- **Be Concise**: Instruct the model on *what* to do, not how to be an AI.
- **Safety First**: If your skill uses `bash`, ensure the prompts don't allow arbitrary command injection from untrusted user input.
- **Test Locally**: Use `clawdbot agent --message "use my new skill"` to test.

## Shared Skills
You can also browse and contribute skills to [ClawdHub](https://clawdhub.com).