readme-env-table-sync

What This Skill Does

The readme-env-table-sync skill is a powerful automation utility designed to bridge the gap between technical documentation and configuration files. In many development projects, maintaining a list of required environment variables in the README.md is a manual, error-prone task. This skill automates that process by parsing your .env.example file and injecting the keys and default values directly into your documentation using designated marker blocks. It acts as a gatekeeper, performing drift detection to ensure your documentation never falls out of sync with your application requirements. By using a 'report' mode, it can fail a CI/CD build if the README isn't updated, or in 'apply' mode, it will perform the injection automatically.

Installation

To add this skill to your workspace, run the following command in your terminal:

clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/daniellummis/readme-env-table-sync

Once installed, ensure your README.md includes the required marker blocks: <!-- ENV_TABLE_START --> and <!-- ENV_TABLE_END -->. These tags allow the script to identify exactly where to place or refresh your configuration table.

Use Cases

This skill is ideal for open-source project maintainers who want to ensure their setup guides are always accurate. It is also perfect for enterprise teams managing complex microservices where onboarding new engineers depends on having up-to-date .env documentation. Use it in your GitHub Actions or GitLab CI pipelines to prevent developers from forgetting to document new environment variables during pull requests.

Example Prompts

1. "OpenClaw, please run the environment sync for my project to ensure the README table matches the current .env.example file."
2. "Check if there is any drift between my current README environment table and the .env.example file, and report the findings."
3. "Apply the environment variable table updates to my README.md file using the default configuration."

Tips & Limitations

To get the best results, maintain a clean and commented .env.example file. The skill parses the file sequentially; ensure your keys are correctly formatted as standard environment assignments. Note that this skill primarily operates via file system access. It does not support complex table formatting customization beyond the standard generated markdown structure. Always double-check that your marker blocks are not nested inside other code blocks or complex markdown structures that might break the parser's logic.