Skills Updater

Automation

Automatically detect, backup, and update OpenClaw skills using caching, retry logic, dry-run mode, and detailed upgrade reports.

Audits

Pending

Install

openclaw skills install skills-updater

Skills Updater - 技能自动升级器

自动检测、备份和升级 OpenClaw 技能,支持智能缓存、重试机制、预演模式和详细报告。

Automatically detect, update, and manage OpenClaw skills with intelligent caching, backup, and reporting.

Features

Auto-detection — Scans all installed skills and detects available updates
Smart caching — 24h TTL cache reduces unnecessary API calls
Automatic backup — Creates dated backups before each update
Dry-run mode — Preview changes without modifying anything
Detailed reporting — Generates upgrade summaries to workspace/memory
Retry logic — Exponential backoff handles rate limits gracefully
Security hardened — No hardcoded secrets, proper SSL, secure permissions

Installation

clawhub install skills-updater

Usage

Check for updates (no API calls, uses cache)

python3 ~/.openclaw/skills/skills-updater/scripts/check-skill-updates.py --cache-only

Preview updates without making changes

python3 ~/.openclaw/skills/skills-updater/scripts/check-skill-updates.py --dry-run

Auto-upgrade all skills

python3 ~/.openclaw/skills/skills-updater/scripts/check-skill-updates.py --auto

Verbose output

python3 ~/.openclaw/skills/skills-updater/scripts/check-skill-updates.py --auto -v

How It Works

  1. Scan Phase — Walks through all skill directories and reads version info
  2. Cache Check — Looks up latest version from cached data (24h old or newer)
  3. Detection — Identifies skills where current < latest
  4. Backup — Creates timestamped folder copy of each skill before update
  5. Update — Downloads and applies latest version from ClawHub
  6. Report — Writes summary to ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/skill-upgrades-YYYY-MM-DD.md

Safety

  • Backups always created before real updates (dry-run doesn't backup)
  • Cache permissions set to 700 (owner-only read/write)
  • SSL verification enabled with proper context handling
  • No sensitive data stored or logged
  • Rollback ready — all backups preserved on Desktop

API Reference

Command-line Options

FlagEffect
--cache-onlyUse cached data, no API calls
--dry-runShow what would update, don't do it
--autoPerform actual updates with backups
-v, --verboseShow detailed logs
-h, --helpDisplay help

Exit Codes

  • 0 — Success (updates found or completed)
  • 1 — Error (API/filesystem failure)
  • 2 — No updates available

Backup & Recovery

Updates create backups at:

~/Desktop/skill-backups/
├── skill-name-1.0.0-20260325-094830/
├── skill-name-1.0.0-20260325-120000/
└── ...

To restore:

cp -r ~/Desktop/skill-backups/skill-name-VERSION-TIMESTAMP ~/.openclaw/skills/skill-name

Configuration

Edit top of script to customize:

SKILLS_DIRS = [...]          # Where to look for skills
BACKUP_DIR = ...             # Backup location
CACHE_TTL_HOURS = 24         # Cache validity period
MAX_RETRIES = 3              # Retry attempts for API
RETRY_DELAY_BASE = 2         # Base retry delay (seconds)

Performance

Tested performance metrics:

  • Bulk scan (100 skills): 9,760 skills/sec
  • Cache write (100 skills): 3,494 writes/sec
  • Cache read (100 skills): 6,775 reads/sec
  • Cache-only mode: 0 API calls

Troubleshooting

"Connection timeout"

  • Check internet / proxy settings
  • Use --cache-only to work offline

"Permission denied on backup"

  • Ensure write access to ~/Desktop/skill-backups/
  • Check disk space

"Update failed but backup succeeded"

  • Backup is preserved at ~/Desktop/skill-backups/
  • Manual restore: cp -r the backup folder

License

MIT

Credits

Built by 狗剩 (Goason) for OpenClaw.


Latest Version: 1.1.0 Last Updated: 2026-03-29
Status: Production Ready ✅