Experimental Template packages

A Template is a versioned package that describes one complete OpenClaw agent and the reusable resources it needs. ClawHub stores and scans the package; OpenClaw owns local inspection, new-agent planning, consent, and addition.

Template publication and exact-name reads are available by default. Hosting a Template does not enable local preview or installation in OpenClaw.

Package lists and search include eligible community and official Templates, subject to the existing publication, visibility, scanning, moderation, and access rules. A scoped package's current publisher must remain active and match its scope; community entries show creator attribution without an Official badge.

The separate Official Template feed includes only canonical @openclaw/* Templates owned by the active OpenClaw publisher organization with a current Official designation. Revoking that designation does not by itself withdraw published artifacts or otherwise eligible community catalog entries. A stored feed without the current policy stamp is unavailable until a new snapshot is published. If @openclaw loses Official status, an existing nonempty feed fails closed with 503 and Cache-Control: no-store; publish a current empty or newly authorized snapshot before serving it again.

Package shape

A publishable Template is a normal package directory with a package.json that points to its manifest:

{  "name": "@openclaw/github-triage",  "version": "1.0.0",  "openclaw": {    "template": "CLAW.md"  }}

CLAW.md starts with the grouped Template manifest as YAML frontmatter. A non-empty Markdown body is the portable agent prompt; OpenClaw applies its exact UTF-8 contents as the managed SOUL.md for the new agent.

---schemaVersion: 1agent:  id: github-triage  name: GitHub Triage  description: Reviews incoming issues.categories: [engineering, productivity]workspace:  files:    - source: workspace/reference.md      path: reference.mdpackages:  - kind: skill    source: clawhub    ref: "@acme/triage"    version: 1.2.0mcpServers: {}cronJobs: []--- # GitHub Triage Reviews and classifies incoming GitHub issues.

categories is optional and accepts one to three distinct lowercase slugs. ClawHub accepts these categories for new releases: personal, health, travel, productivity, research, engineering, governance, operations, finance, sales, product, and people. Declared categories take precedence; ClawHub rejects unrecognized slugs. When omitted, ClawHub attempts to classify the Template from its manifest and documentation and uses Other if classification is unavailable. To correct an inferred category, add categories to CLAW.md and publish a new release.

JSON manifests remain compatible. Set openclaw.template to a package-relative JSON file such as openclaw.template.json; JSON has no Markdown body, so declare workspace.bootstrapFiles.SOUL.md explicitly when it needs the equivalent prompt.

Do not combine a non-empty CLAW.md body with an explicit workspace file whose portable destination is SOUL.md. ClawHub rejects that ambiguous dual source. Headings and task lists in the body are prompt text, not package-time commands.

Every workspace.*.source must name a file in the same package. Assets such as schemas, templates, examples, and images are portable ordinary workspace files; place them under paths such as assets/, schemas/, or templates/ and declare them in workspace.files. Package names and versions must match package.json, dependency versions must be exact, and MCP environment values must remain unresolved ${ENV_VAR} references.

Bootstrap and harness profiles

An optional package-root BOOTSTRAP.md contains first-run instructions. It is seeded once by a supporting harness and remains separate from the reusable portable prompt in the CLAW.md body. Do not declare root BOOTSTRAP.md as a workspace destination; that path is reserved for the package-root file. ClawHub includes bootstrap presence, but never its contents, in the bounded catalog summary.

Harness-specific tuning uses conventional package paths:

profiles/openclaw.ymlprofiles/hermes.ymlprofiles/codex.yml

The profiles/ namespace is reserved for these lowercase, single-file .yml paths. Each profile is a JSON-compatible YAML mapping. ClawHub validates the common shape and validates profiles/openclaw.yml against the shipped OpenClaw v1 consumer contract, including registered built-in tool profiles and bounded tool grants; it does not interpret foreign profiles. A harness discovers only its own profile and ignores the others when applying the package. The exact published artifact and its digest still cover every profile, bootstrap instruction, and asset.

The retired metadata.openclaw.config pointer is rejected. Move that file to profiles/openclaw.yml and remove the metadata entry.

OpenClaw-native extension packages belong in profiles/openclaw.yml, while portable MCP servers remain in CLAW.md:

schemaVersion: 1agent:  tools:    profile: coding    allow: [read]extensions:  - id: issue-tools    kind: plugin    format: openclaw    source: clawhub    ref: "@acme/issue-tools"    version: 2.3.4

Extension ids and package references must be unique, and versions must be exact. Other harnesses may bind the same application needs using their own native profile model; the portable manifest does not impose a capability-name registry.

Validate, build, and publish

Validate the source project and build its deterministic artifact with OpenClaw:

openclaw templates validate .openclaw templates build . --out ./github-triage-1.0.0.tgz

Preview that exact artifact without uploading it, then publish it through the existing authenticated package flow:

clawhub package publish ./github-triage-1.0.0.tgz --family template --dry-runclawhub package publish ./github-triage-1.0.0.tgz --family template --wait

The CLI detects family: template when package.json contains openclaw.template, so --family template is optional for a well-formed package.

Experimental Template publication accepts only an already-built npm-pack .tgz, not a source directory or GitHub checkout. The CLI sends the local artifact SHA-256 with the request; ClawHub verifies it against the uploaded bytes before publication and returns the same digest through pending and final responses.

Publication rejects:

• a missing, invalid, or escaping openclaw.template path;
• a source folder instead of a built .tgz;
• package identity or version mismatches;
• a missing or mismatched expected artifact SHA-256;
• malformed CLAW.md frontmatter or manifest fields;
• a non-empty CLAW.md body combined with an explicit SOUL.md destination;
• missing workspace source files or portable path collisions;
• invalid package-root bootstrap instructions or conventional harness profiles;
• the retired metadata.openclaw.config pointer;
• floating skill/plugin versions and resolved MCP credentials.

Accepted packages continue through ClawHub's existing ownership, moderation, static scanning, release, and artifact storage pipeline. The stored release retains the exact artifact plus a non-sensitive summary for later search and detail surfaces; downloads return those same bytes and digest, and ClawHub does not duplicate the full manifest into Convex storage.

Discover published Templates

ClawHub exposes Templates through the existing package API:

curl "https://clawhub.ai/api/v1/packages?family=template"curl "https://clawhub.ai/api/v1/packages?family=template&category=travel"curl "https://clawhub.ai/api/v1/packages/search?q=triage&family=template"curl "https://clawhub.ai/api/v1/packages/search?q=trip&family=template&category=travel"curl "https://clawhub.ai/api/v1/packages/@openclaw%2Fgithub-triage"

List and search results use the normal package summary fields. Package and version detail responses may also include templateManifestSummary, which reports the agent identity, portable resource counts, harness-profile count, OpenClaw-profile count, and native extension count without exposing the full manifest or profile contents. Use category=other for Templates that could not be classified. Category filters require family=template; unrecognized categories return a validation error.

Full manifests remain in exact artifacts and are never projected through public release responses.

Consume the experimental feed

ClawHub publishes eligible Official @openclaw Templates as a separate hosted feed:

curl "https://clawhub.ai/v1/feeds/templates"

This uses a dedicated experimental Template feed contract rather than extending the stable plugin/skill catalog feed v1 schema.

Each entry provides the exact package version, artifact SHA-256, publisher trust, and templateManifestSummary. Consumers resolve and verify that artifact, unpack it as a normal Template package directory, and pass the directory to OpenClaw for local inspection or templates add --dry-run. ClawHub does not bypass OpenClaw's preview or consent boundary.

The feed route returns 503 until a current Official Template snapshot is published.

Run the repeatable registry-to-OpenClaw proof against an OpenClaw Templates checkout with:

OPENCLAW_TEMPLATES_CHECKOUT=/path/to/openclaw \  bunx vitest run scripts/templates-feed-openclaw-e2e.test.ts --maxWorkers=1

The proof serves a deterministic hosted feed and package artifact, verifies the feed and downloaded digests, extracts the package, and invokes the actual OpenClaw source CLI with templates add --dry-run --json in an isolated state directory.