The 10 Best Free OpenClaw Skills in 2026

The OpenClaw ecosystem has exploded in 2026. With more than 240 community-built skills now available through the AI Skill Market, picking the right ones to install first is harder than it looks. Most users only need a tight handful of well-chosen skills to unlock 80% of the productivity benefit, and the best ones are completely free. This guide is the shortlist we hand to every new user. We focused on free skills with strong adoption, real documentation, active maintenance, and a clear "I would actually use this every week" use case. Each entry below has a one-line install command, a description of what it actually does in practice, and the type of work it makes faster.

Selection Criteria

We ranked these skills using a consistent rubric so you can trust the order:

• Cost: Must be 100% free with no paywall, no rate-limited freemium tier
• Maintenance: Last commit within 60 days, active issue responses
• Install footprint: Single command install, zero manual configuration where possible
• Real utility: Solves a problem the average Claude Code user actually has
• Documentation: README explains what it does, when to use it, and what it produces

1. Skill Creator

Link: /skills/skill-creator

The official skill that teaches Claude how to build new skills. If you only install one skill from this list, make it this one — it bootstraps every other skill you'll ever build.

Key use cases:

• Scaffold a new skill from a one-line description
• Refactor an existing skill into a cleaner structure
• Generate SKILL.md frontmatter that actually triggers reliably

Install: npx claw install skill-creator

Why it made the list: Skill Creator is the meta-skill that compounds. Every hour you spend with it makes the next skill you build twice as fast.

2. Superpowers

Link: /skills/superpowers

A bundled collection of 20+ engineering discipline skills — TDD, systematic debugging, plan execution, code review, worktree management. It is the closest thing to a senior engineer mentor you can install in 60 seconds.

Key use cases:

• Force test-first development on any project
• Run systematic debugging when you are stuck
• Execute multi-step plans in isolated worktrees

Install: npx claw install superpowers

Why it made the list: It is not one skill, it is a curriculum. You get years of engineering wisdom encoded as triggerable behaviors.

3. MCP Builder

Link: /skills/mcp-builder

The fastest way to go from "I want to expose this API to Claude" to a working MCP server. Handles Python (FastMCP) and TypeScript scaffolding, tool design, and validation.

Key use cases:

• Wrap an internal REST API as an MCP server
• Build a custom MCP for your team's databases
• Refactor a noisy MCP into a clean tool surface

Install: npx claw install mcp-builder

Why it made the list: MCP is the integration layer for the next decade of AI tooling. This skill removes 90% of the friction.

4. Test-Driven Development

Link: /skills/test-driven-development

A focused skill that enforces red-green-refactor on every feature you implement. Refuses to write production code until a failing test exists.

Key use cases:

• New feature development with safety nets
• Bug fixes where you want a regression test first
• Teaching juniors discipline by example

Install: npx claw install test-driven-development

Why it made the list: Discipline is hard. Encoding it as a skill makes it the path of least resistance.

5. Systematic Debugging

Link: /skills/systematic-debugging

Stops the "throw fixes at the wall" anti-pattern cold. Forces hypothesis-driven debugging with reproduction steps, isolation, and verification.

Key use cases:

• Flaky tests that pass locally but fail in CI
• Production bugs with sparse logs
• "It works on my machine" investigations

Install: npx claw install systematic-debugging

Why it made the list: It turns debugging from frustration into a process. You will solve bugs in a third the time.

6. Remotion Skill

Link: /skills/remotion-skill

Programmatic video creation with React components. Generate marketing videos, product demos, or release notes as code.

Key use cases:

• Auto-generated changelog videos
• Personalized customer demos
• Social media clips from product data

Install: npx claw install remotion-skill

Why it made the list: Video is the highest-bandwidth content format and this is the only skill that makes it programmable.

7. Trail of Bits Security Skills

Link: /skills/trail-of-bits-security-skills

A free bundle of audit-grade security skills published by one of the most respected security firms in the industry. Covers code review, dependency analysis, and threat modeling.

Key use cases:

• Pre-commit security review
• Dependency vulnerability triage
• Threat modeling for new features

Install: npx claw install trail-of-bits-security-skills

Why it made the list: Free security expertise from a top-tier firm — there is simply no equivalent.

8. Last30Days

Link: /skills/last30days

Generates a polished summary of the last 30 days of git activity across any repository. Perfect for monthly stakeholder updates or self-reviews.

Key use cases:

• Monthly engineering updates to leadership
• Solo dev retrospectives
• Performance review preparation

Install: npx claw install last30days

Why it made the list: It turns a 90-minute manual task into a 10-second command.

9. Impeccable

Link: /skills/impeccable

A code-quality skill that runs a multi-pass review focused on readability, naming, and removing dead complexity. Catches the issues human reviewers miss.

Key use cases:

• Pre-PR self-review
• Refactor sweeps before a release
• Onboarding new code into a strict codebase

Install: npx claw install impeccable

Why it made the list: It raises the floor of every PR you ship without slowing you down.

10. Claude Command Suite

Link: /skills/claude-command-suite

A library of 100+ slash commands for everyday Claude Code tasks — commits, PRs, reviews, refactors, doc generation. The Swiss Army knife of skills.

Key use cases:

• Standardized commit messages across a team
• One-command PR creation with consistent format
• Doc generation for legacy code

Install: npx claw install claude-command-suite

Why it made the list: Sheer breadth. There is a command in here for almost every routine task you can imagine.

Comparison Table

How to Choose

If you are brand new to Claude Code, install Skill Creator and Superpowers first — they unlock the rest of the ecosystem. If you ship code professionally, add Test-Driven Development, Systematic Debugging, and Impeccable. If you build integrations, MCP Builder is essential. Security-conscious teams should add Trail of Bits before anything else. Don't try to install all ten on day one — pick the three that match your most painful current bottleneck and add more as you outgrow them.

FAQ

Are these really free forever? Yes. All ten are open-source under permissive licenses with no upgrade nags or paid tiers.

Do I need to install them in any order? No, but Skill Creator is the most useful first install because it makes building everything else easier.

Can I uninstall a skill cleanly? Yes, every OpenClaw skill installed via claw can be removed with npx claw uninstall <name>.

Will these slow Claude Code down? No. Skills are loaded on-demand based on triggers in their description, so unused skills cost nothing.

Where do I report bugs? Each skill links its source repo on its detail page. Issues go directly to the maintainer.

Conclusion

These ten skills are the highest-leverage free installs available in the Claude Code ecosystem right now. Pick three, install them in the next 60 seconds, and you will feel the difference on your next task. When you outgrow them, browse the full library at /browse, or contribute one of your own at /submit. For more curated lists, see our /agents and /workflows collections.

Related reading:

• The 10 Best AI Agents for Developers in 2026
• The 10 Best Claude Code Workflows in 2026
• 150 AI Specialists You Can Hire in 30 Seconds
• MCP Model Context Protocol Guide

Sources

• agency-agents on GitHub
• clawflows on GitHub
• Claude Code Documentation
• AI Skill Market Browse