Skills & Plugins

Extend your agent’s capabilities by installing skills and plugins. Each framework has access to its own ecosystem of extensions that add new tools, integrations, and behaviors.

All skills and plugins are free to install on every Hatcher plan. The only limit is how many you can have installed at once, which depends on your tier.

Skills vs Plugins

	Skills	Plugins
What they are	Lightweight extensions that add specific capabilities (web search, memory, calculator, file tools)	Larger packages that add platform integrations, data sources, or complex behaviors
Install size	Small (usually a single module)	Varies (can include dependencies)
Examples	Web search, encryption, image generation, code execution	Telegram adapter, Discord bot, database connector, blockchain tools

In practice, the distinction depends on the framework. OpenClaw uses “skills” from ClawHub. OpenClaw and Hermes use “plugins” from the OpenClaw registry. Hermes has both built-in skills and ClawHub/GitHub packages.

Installing Skills & Plugins

From the Recommended List

The easiest way to add capabilities:

Open the Plugins tab

Go to your agent’s dashboard and click the Plugins tab (or Skills tab, depending on your framework).

Browse recommended

You’ll see a curated list of recommended skills and plugins for your agent’s framework. Each entry shows the name, description, and source.

Install

Click Install next to any skill or plugin. The agent will download and activate it — this may take a few seconds. A restart may be required for some plugins.

Search a Registry

You can search the full registry for your framework:

In the Plugins tab, use the Search field
Type a keyword (e.g., “web search”, “memory”, “telegram”)
Results show available packages from ClawHub, npm, or the OpenClaw registry
Click Install on any result

Install by Name (Manual)

If you know the exact package name:

In the Plugins tab, click Install by Name (or use the manual install field)
Enter the full package name (e.g., @clawhub/web-search or @clawhub/plugin-sql)
Click Install

Manual installs bypass the curated list. Make sure you trust the source before installing unknown packages.

Framework Differences

Each framework has its own plugin ecosystem and install mechanism.

OpenClaw

Sources: ClawHub + npm

OpenClaw has the largest skill ecosystem with 13,700+ skills available on ClawHub. Skills are lightweight modules that add specific tools to your agent.

Popular skills:

web-search — Search the web via Brave
memory — Persistent conversation memory
calculator — Math and calculations
web-fetch — Fetch and parse web pages
file-tools — Read, write, and manage files
encrypt-decrypt — AES encryption/decryption

Skills are installed via the ClawHub package manager inside the container. You can also install npm packages directly.

OpenClaw

Source: OpenClaw plugin registry

OpenClaw uses its own plugin architecture with 350+ plugins available. Plugins are npm packages from the @clawhub scope.

Popular plugins:

@clawhub/plugin-sql — Database interactions
@clawhub/plugin-image-generation — Generate images
@clawhub/plugin-pdf — PDF parsing and extraction
@clawhub/plugin-video-generation — Video content
@clawhub/plugin-tee — Trusted execution environment

Plugins are installed via npm inside the container and registered in the agent’s character file.

Hermes

Source: OpenClaw plugin registry

Hermes shares the OpenClaw plugin ecosystem (it’s built on the same core). Available plugins are the same as OpenClaw, installed from the @clawhub scope.

Popular plugins:

@clawhub/plugin-sql — Database interactions
@clawhub/plugin-image-generation — Generate images
@clawhub/plugin-pdf — PDF parsing

Plugins are installed via npm and registered in the Hermes config file.

Not all OpenClaw plugins are compatible with every Hermes version. The recommended list shows only verified-compatible plugins.

Tier Limits

The number of skills and plugins you can install per agent depends on your plan:

Plan	Max Plugins per Agent
Free	3
Starter ($4.99/mo)	10
Pro ($14.99/mo)	25
Business ($39.99/mo)	50
Founding Member ($99 lifetime)	50

These limits apply per agent. If you have 3 agents on the Pro plan, each agent can have up to 25 plugins installed independently.

Uninstalling

To remove a skill or plugin:

Go to the Plugins tab on your agent
Find the installed skill or plugin
Click Uninstall
The agent may need a restart to fully remove the extension

Uninstalling frees up a slot toward your tier limit.

Troubleshooting

Plugin install stuck or failed

Restart your agent — some installs require a container restart to complete
Check the agent logs — look for error messages related to the install
Tier limit reached — if you’ve hit your limit, uninstall an existing plugin first

Plugin not working after install

Restart the agent to ensure the plugin is loaded
Check compatibility — some plugins only work with specific frameworks or versions
Check your LLM — some plugins require tool-calling support in the LLM model

”Plugin limit reached” error

Your current plan’s plugin limit has been reached. Either uninstall an existing plugin or upgrade your plan for a higher limit.