substack-formatter

What This Skill Does

The substack-formatter skill is a specialized utility designed for content creators and newsletter writers who use Substack. Its primary function is to bridge the gap between raw text drafting and the platform's specific HTML requirements. When you write drafts in simple text or markdown editors, pasting directly into Substack often results in lost formatting, inconsistent spacing, or broken bullet points. This skill solves the problem by programmatically converting your content into clean, semantic HTML—utilizing standard tags like <strong>, <em>, <h2>, and <p>—that the Substack editor natively recognizes as formatted blocks. By automating the transition from plain text to browser-ready HTML, it saves users from the manual labor of re-styling headers, bolding key phrases, and fixing paragraph breaks after every paste.

Installation

To integrate this skill into your workflow, use the OpenClaw CLI. Open your terminal and execute the following command:

clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/maddiedreese/substack-formatter

Ensure that you have the latest version of the OpenClaw agent runtime installed to maintain compatibility with the included utility scripts such as the HTML clipboard formatter.

Use Cases

This skill is perfect for newsletter writers, bloggers, and marketers who prioritize high-quality presentation. Use it when:

• You have drafted a lengthy essay in a plain text editor and want to preserve your headers and emphasis when moving it to Substack.
• You need to standardize formatting across a team of writers to ensure all newsletters look consistent.
• You want to inject custom formatting like specific emphasis or lists that are sometimes finicky in web-based rich text editors.
• You are managing high-volume content operations and need a reliable way to ensure formatting integrity without manual oversight.

Example Prompts

1. "Format this text for Substack, making the second paragraph a subheading and bolding the main takeaway at the end: [Insert your draft here]"
2. "I need this article to be ready for Substack. Use the minimal formatting option so it keeps my exact spacing, but make sure the list items render as proper bullet points."
3. "Convert my notes into a Substack-ready format. Use an H2 for the title and H3 for the section headers, and ensure all my links are properly wrapped in anchor tags."

Tips & Limitations

To get the best results, start with clear markdown in your input text. If you use standard markdown syntax (like # for headers or * for italics), the formatter will translate those into the appropriate HTML tags automatically. Note that this skill is optimized for Substack's editor—other platforms may not interpret the specific CSS-class-free HTML output in the same way. Always use the 'copy_to_substack.py' tool provided in the package to ensure the clipboard receives the correct text/html MIME type, as a standard string copy may lose the formatting benefits.