OpenClaw 2026 Deployment Guide: 4 Essential Skills to Install & Common Pitfalls

OpenClaw Skills Guide

If you have just completed the deployment of OpenClaw, you might find yourself in an awkward situation: the service is up and running, but the system seems far from “intelligent.” Beyond basic conversation, its practical operational capabilities are close to zero. It cannot search the web, process spreadsheets, or even know what other functions are available. Please do not panic; this does not mean your deployment failed. It is simply because OpenClaw uses a “light kernel, heavy plugin” architecture design.

By default, OpenClaw is essentially a bare framework. Its true productivity relies entirely on Skills (Skill Plugins). The 2026 version of OpenClaw has seen significant upgrades in its ecosystem, particularly with the official skill marketplace, ClawHub, which now hosts over 3,000 practical Skills. However, for a beginner, sifting through this massive library to find the truly useful tools is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Based on the latest 2026 documentation and practical deployment experience, this guide will detail the installation logic, configuration details, and practical usage of 4 Essential Skills. These four Skills cover the core needs of skill discovery, web search, AI-optimized queries, and office automation. All code commands provided are verified and ready to copy. Additionally, we have compiled the 7 most common “pitfalls” and their solutions to help you avoid the “white deployment” trap and build an AI workflow with genuine automated capabilities.

Why “Not Installing Skills” Means “White Deployment”?

Before we dive into the code, we need to understand the operational logic of OpenClaw. Many users, accustomed to “out-of-the-box” software, mistakenly believe that deploying the server is the finish line. However, OpenClaw is designed like a Linux distribution: the core is minimal, and capabilities are entirely dependent on extensions.

Core Upgrades in OpenClaw 2026

Compared to early versions, the 2026 version has seen a qualitative leap in both ecosystem and security:

  1. Mature Skills Ecosystem: ClawHub, the official skill marketplace, now supports one-click installation and plug-and-play functionality. You no longer need to manually write complex configuration files; a single command allows you to extend AI capabilities just like installing apps on a smartphone.
  2. Enhanced Security and Stability: The new version adds permission control, log auditing, and instruction whitelisting. For enterprise users, this means you can restrict AI access to sensitive files or prohibit high-risk operations, avoiding the risk of “AI going rogue.”

Facing 3,000 Skills: Which Ones to Install?

While ClawHub hosts over 3,000 Skills, actual testing shows that 90% of skills have extremely low usage frequency or overlapping functions. For beginners, the skills that solve 80% of daily core needs (skill discovery, web search, office automation) are actually concentrated in the following 4 essential Skills. Installing these will transform your OpenClaw from a “chatbox” into a “smart assistant.”

Preparation: Core Management Commands

Before installing specific Skills, we need to master a set of universal management commands. These commands act as the “remote control” for managing OpenClaw. All subsequent installation, uninstallation, and enablement operations rely on them. Please execute these commands in your server terminal.

How to Check and Manage Skills Status?

First, you need to learn how to check the current system status. Often, installation failures or unusable skills are due to the status not changing to “ready.”

# View installed Skills (check status to ensure they are enabled)
openclaw skills list --status ready

This command lists all skills in the “ready” state. If a skill doesn’t appear in the list after installation, or if its status is abnormal, it indicates an issue with the installation process.

The Correct Way to Install and Uninstall

The 2026 version recommends using the ClawHub CLI method for installation. This is the officially certified stable path, effectively avoiding package corruption caused by network fluctuations.

# Install Skills (Two methods, ClawHub CLI recommended for stability)
npx clawhub@latest install <skill-slug>  # Official recommended method, adapted for 2026
openclaw skills install <skill-slug>     # Alternative method, compatible with older versions

If a skill is no longer needed, use the uninstall command to keep the system clean:

# Uninstall unneeded Skills
openclaw skills uninstall <skill-slug>

Flexible Control: Enable and Disable

Sometimes, for debugging purposes, we might want to temporarily turn off a skill without deleting its configuration. You can use the disable command:

# Enable/Disable Skills (Flexible on/off without uninstalling)
openclaw skills enable <skill-slug>
openclaw skills disable <skill-slug>

Keeping Skills Updated

Keeping skills updated is the most effective way to resolve compatibility bugs:

# Check for Skill updates, update all installed Skills
npx skills check
npx skills update all

Essential Skill 1: Find Skills (Your Skill Navigator)

What Does This Skill Do?

Finding the right tool in a massive plugin library is often the biggest headache for beginners. Find Skills is called a “Meta-Skill.” Its function is like a skilled librarian. You don’t need to remember complex skill names; simply tell it “I want to process Excel” or “I want to send an email,” and it will automatically recommend the most suitable skills and provide installation instructions.

Installation Steps

As the essential first choice, its installation is very simple and requires no extra configuration.

# Install Find Skills (Official recommended method, adapted for 2026)
npx clawhub@latest install find-skills
# Verify installation result; success is indicated by "find-skills" with status "ready"
openclaw skills list --status ready
# (Optional) Update Find Skills to the latest version
npx skills update find-skills

Practical Usage: Search for Tools Like a Conversation

Once installed, you can use natural language commands directly in the Web Console or terminal.

  • Scenario 1: You don’t know what to install to handle spreadsheets.

    • Command: “Help me find a skill that can batch process Excel.”
    • Effect: The system will automatically recommend relevant plugins like excel-processor and display the installation command directly.

  • Scenario 2: You want to search precisely via command line.

    # Search for Excel processing related skills
openclaw skills search excel
# One-click install of the found skill
npx clawhub@latest install excel-processor

Essential Skill 2: Tavily Search (Precision Search Tool)

Why Does AI Need a Search Skill?

Large Language Models (LLMs) have a knowledge cutoff date. If you ask it “What are the latest Alibaba Cloud server prices in 2026?”, the default model can only fabricate based on old data (often called “hallucination”). Tavily Search is a search engine designed specifically for AI. It cleans and structurally processes real-time information from the internet, stripping away ads and redundant content, feeding only the core results to the AI.

Installation and Configuration

To ensure a better search experience, it is recommended to configure the language settings after installation.

# Install Tavily Search
npx clawhub@latest install tavily-search
# Verify installation result
openclaw skills list --status ready
# Configure Tavily Search (Set search language)
openclaw skills configure tavily-search
# Follow prompts to input configuration: language=zh-CN (or your preferred language), leave others as default, press Enter to confirm

Practical Usage: Real-time Info and Deep Research

  • Real-time Information Query
    When you need the latest industry trends:

    • Command: “Search for the latest OpenClaw version update content in 2026 using Tavily Search and return structured results.”
    • Effect: Usually within 2 minutes, you get a precise summary with source links without sifting through massive search results yourself.

  • Deep Search Mode
    For complex code errors where normal search might not hit the nail on the head, use the --deep mode:

    openclaw chat "Use tavily-search --deep to search for solutions to 'Python ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10'"

  • News Topic Search
    Quickly generate industry briefs:

    openclaw chat "Use tavily-search --news to search for recent hot news in the AI field, return 5 items, each including title, summary, source"

Essential Skill 3: Multi Search Engine (All-Web Search Aggregator)

Core Advantage: The Global Hub Without API Keys

If Tavily Search focuses on “Precision,” then Multi Search Engine focuses on “Comprehensiveness.” It integrates 17 search engines (covering 8 domestic and 9 international engines like Baidu, Google, Bing). Most importantly, it works without applying for an API Key, significantly lowering the configuration barrier.

Multi Search Engine Supported List

Installation and Configuration

# Install Multi Search Engine
npx clawhub@latest install multi-search-engine
# Verify installation result
openclaw skills list --status ready
# (Optional) Configure default search engine (e.g., set Baidu as default domestic engine)
openclaw config set skills.multi-search-engine.default-engine baidu

Tavily vs. Multi Search Engine: How to Choose?

Users often struggle to choose between these two search skills. They each have their focus; it is recommended to switch flexibly based on the scenario:

Scenario Recommended Skill Reason
Quick Precision Info Tavily Search Results are AI-optimized, structured, low noise.
Multi-source Verification Multi Search Engine 17 engines full coverage, suitable for checking prices or news authenticity.
Privacy Protection Multi Search Engine Supports privacy engines like DuckDuckGo, does not track user behavior.
Knowledge Calculation Multi Search Engine Integrated with WolframAlpha, adept at math formulas and unit conversion.

Practical Examples

  • Multi-source Verification:

    openclaw chat "Use multi-search-engine to search '2026 Alibaba Cloud Lightweight Application Server latest price', compare results from 3 different search engines"
  • Knowledge Calculation:

    openclaw chat "Use multi-search-engine --engine wolframalpha to calculate sin(60°), convert 100 USD to RMB"

Essential Skill 4: Office-Automation (Office Automation Core)

Let AI Do the Actual Work for You

This is the key skill for boosting individual and enterprise efficiency. It is no longer limited to “looking up info” but directly intervenes in “doing things.” Whether generating weekly reports, processing Excel data, or managing emails and schedules, it handles it all.

Installation and Critical Configuration

This skill involves sensitive operations like sending emails, so the configuration steps are slightly more than the previous ones. Please check carefully.

# Install Office-Automation skill
npx clawhub@latest install office-automation
# Verify installation result
openclaw skills list --status ready
# Configure Office Automation skill
openclaw skills configure office-automation

Configuration Details (Follow terminal prompts):

  1. Email Configuration: Enter your email account and authorization code (Note: Many email providers like QQ Mail or 163 Mail require you to enable SMTP service on the web and get an authorization code, not use your login password).

    • Example for QQ Mail: SMTP server smtp.qq.com, port 465.
  2. Schedule Configuration: Input Feishu or Outlook credentials if you need schedule syncing.
  3. Document Configuration: Set file save path, e.g., /root/office-files.
  4. Restart Service: This is the most easily overlooked step. After configuration, you must restart the service for it to take effect.

    openclaw gateway restart

Practical Usage: From Reports to Emails

  • Auto-Generate Weekly Reports:
    Stop racking your brains over how to write a report; just throw the key points to it.

    openclaw chat "Use office-automation to generate this week's work report. Work content: Deployed OpenClaw, installed essential Skills. Achievements: Completed Alibaba Cloud deployment and skill config. Next week plan: Learn custom skill development."

  • Email Automation:

    # Send email with attachment
openclaw chat "Use office-automation to send email, recipient: xxx@163.com, subject: OpenClaw Deployment Summary, attachment: /root/office-files/summary.pdf"

  • Excel Data Processing:

    # Calculate statistics and generate charts
openclaw chat "Use office-automation to process /root/office-files/sales_data.xlsx, calculate monthly sales per product, generate bar chart."

Skill Synergy: Unleashing 1+1>2 Power

A single skill is powerful, but true automation often requires chaining multiple skills. Here are two classic combination scenarios:

1. Information Research + Report Generation

Flow: Multi Search Engine (Broad Collection) → Tavily Search (Deep Digging) → Office-Automation (Output Results).

This combo is excellent for industry analysis. You don’t need to search, filter, and write yourself; one command completes the loop:

openclaw chat "First use multi-search-engine to search 2026 AI automation tool trends, then use tavily-search --deep to mine core data, finally use office-automation to generate analysis report, save as PDF and send to my email."

2. Office Automation Loop

Flow: Find Skills (Capability Extension) → Office-Automation (Task Execution).

When you encounter a problem current skills can’t solve, use Find Skills to dynamically extend capabilities:

openclaw chat "First use find-skills to search 'Excel batch data import' skill, install it and batch import data, then use office-automation to generate statistical report."

Beginner’s Pitfall Guide: Common Problem Troubleshooting (FAQ)

Encountering errors during deployment is normal. Here are the high-frequency problems and solutions based on 2026 feedback. Bookmark this for future reference.

Q1: Initialization prompts “API-Key invalid”?

Problem: After executing the initialization command, the system prompts that the key is invalid and cannot connect to the Alibaba Cloud Bailian model.

Core Reasons:

  1. Extra spaces or case errors during input.
  2. Key is disabled or expired in the console.
  3. Wrong model provider selected.

Solutions:

  • Carefully check the API-Key to ensure no extra spaces.
  • Log in to the Alibaba Cloud Bailian console and check if the key status is “Enabled”.
  • When re-executing the initialization command, ensure you select the model provider as “Qwen (OAuth)”.

Q2: Installation keeps prompting “Network Timeout”?

Problem: The installation command reports timeout or failed to download.

Core Reasons: Domestic server access to overseas sources is unstable.

Solutions:
Configuring a domestic mirror source is the best solution:

# Configure domestic Skills installation mirror source
openclaw config set plugins.registry
# Re-install Skills
npx clawhub@latest install <skill-slug>

If it still fails, try the alternative installation command: openclaw skills install <skill-slug>.

Q3: Startup prompts “Port 18789 is already in use”?

Problem: Executing openclaw gateway start reports Port 18789 is already in use.

Solutions:
This is usually because a previous process didn’t close completely or is occupied by another program.

# 1. Find the PID of the program occupying the port
lsof -i:18789
# 2. Terminate the process (Replace PID with actual number)
kill -9 <PID>
# 3. Restart service
openclaw gateway restart

Q4: Skills show installed but status is “not ready”?

Problem: The skill appears in the list but cannot be used; status shows abnormal.

Solutions:
Usually, dependencies are missing or the service hasn’t restarted.

# 1. Enable skill
openclaw skills enable <skill-slug>
# 2. Install dependencies
openclaw skills install-deps <skill-slug>
# 3. Restart service
openclaw gateway restart

Q5: Web Console login prompts “unauthorized”?

Problem: After entering the Token, it says invalid or expired.

Solutions:
Regenerate a long-term Token:

openclaw token generate --expire 365d

Be careful not to copy extra spaces when copying the generated Token, then log in again.

Q6: Office-Automation cannot send emails?

Core Reasons: SMTP configuration error or port not allowed.

Solutions:

  1. Check SMTP address and port (e.g., 163 Mail port is usually 465).
  2. Confirm you are using the Authorization Code, not the login password.
  3. Allow the port in the server firewall:

    ufw allow 465/tcp && ufw reload

Q7: OpenClaw doesn’t auto-run after server restart?

Solutions:
Set up auto-start on boot:

openclaw gateway enable
# Verify success
openclaw gateway is-enabled

Advanced Extension: Performance Optimization and Custom Development

Once you are skilled with OpenClaw, you might want to dig deeper into its potential.

How to Improve Running Efficiency?

Installing too many skills will occupy system resources. It is recommended to regularly clean unused skills and caches:

# View all installed skills
openclaw skills list
# Disable useless skills
openclaw skills disable <skill-slug>
# Clean cache to free space
openclaw skills clean-cache

How to Develop Your Own Skills?

If official skills don’t meet your specific needs (like connecting to specific internal systems), you can try custom development.

  1. Create Directory:

    mkdir -p ~/.openclaw/skills/my-custom-skill
cd ~/.openclaw/skills/my-custom-skill
  2. Write Config File (skill.json):

    {
  "name": "my-custom-skill",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "Custom office automation skill, batch rename files",
  "author": "Custom Author",
  "dependencies": {},
  "entry": "index.js"
}
  3. Write Logic: Write your business logic in index.js.
  4. Install and Enable:

    openclaw skills install ~/.openclaw/skills/my-custom-skill
openclaw skills enable my-custom-skill

Conclusion

The power of OpenClaw lies in its infinite extensibility. Through the 4 essential Skills introduced in this guide, you can already cover the vast majority of daily office and information processing scenarios. Don’t stop here; as you become more familiar with the system, try exploring more vertical skills in ClawHub or start writing your own exclusive skills—that is the true charm of OpenClaw. We hope this guide helps you complete your deployment successfully and makes AI your capable work assistant.