Install
openclaw skills install deepwiki-mcpQuery DeepWiki MCP to get AI-grounded answers about any public GitHub repository. Use when answering questions about a repo's source code, architecture, configuration, or internals. Triggers on "how does X work in <repo>", "deepwiki", "look up in codebase", "ask deepwiki", "check the source code".
openclaw skills install deepwiki-mcpQuery any public GitHub repository using DeepWiki's AI-powered documentation and Q&A service. No API key, no auth, free.
MCP endpoint: https://mcp.deepwiki.com/mcp
This skill handles:
This skill does NOT handle:
| Input | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Question | Yes | Natural-language question about a repo |
| Repository | No | owner/repo format. Defaults to openclaw/openclaw |
| Action | No | ask (default), topics, or docs |
The script is located in this skill's directory at scripts/deepwiki.sh.
# Ask a question (defaults to openclaw/openclaw)
<skill_dir>/scripts/deepwiki.sh ask "How does session compaction work?"
# Ask about a specific repo
<skill_dir>/scripts/deepwiki.sh ask facebook/react "How does concurrent mode work?"
# List documentation topics
<skill_dir>/scripts/deepwiki.sh topics openclaw/openclaw
# Get full wiki contents (large output — prefer ask for targeted queries)
<skill_dir>/scripts/deepwiki.sh docs openclaw/openclaw
Replace <skill_dir> with the directory containing this SKILL.md.
DeepWiki returns AI-generated answers grounded in the repo's actual source code. The response typically includes:
Relay the answer to the user, adding your own context if you have additional knowledge.
If the answer is incomplete or raises new questions:
topics to find relevant documentation sectionsdocs for broader context (but note: output can be very large)If the helper script is unavailable:
curl -s -X POST https://mcp.deepwiki.com/mcp \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
-d '{
"jsonrpc": "2.0",
"id": 1,
"method": "tools/call",
"params": {
"name": "ask_question",
"arguments": {
"repoName": "owner/repo",
"question": "YOUR QUESTION"
}
}
}' | grep '^data:' | grep '"id":1' | sed 's/^data: //' | \
python3 -c "import json,sys; d=json.load(sys.stdin); print(d['result']['content'][0]['text'])"
| Tool | Purpose | Arguments |
|---|---|---|
ask_question | Ask any question, get AI-grounded answer | repoName, question |
read_wiki_structure | List documentation topics for a repo | repoName |
read_wiki_contents | Get full wiki docs for a repo | repoName |
| Problem | Detection | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Timeout (>60s) | curl hangs or no response | Retry once; DeepWiki may be under load |
| Empty response | No data: lines in SSE stream | Check if repo exists and is public |
| Repo not indexed | Error message about unknown repo | Try again — DeepWiki indexes on first request |
| Rate limited | HTTP 429 or error response | Wait 30s and retry |
| Script not found | File not at expected path | Use direct curl fallback |
No persistent configuration required. The skill uses:
exec tool to run the helper script (bash + curl + python3)System dependencies:
| Dependency | Purpose |
|---|---|
| bash | Script execution |
| curl | HTTP requests to MCP endpoint |
| python3 | JSON parsing of SSE responses |
ask_question is the most useful tool — use it first