ClawHub or ClawLink: when to use each

ClawHub is where the OpenClaw community publishes skills, and for most jobs a skill is the right answer: it is free, you can read the source, and someone has usually written the one you need. ClawLink handles one narrower case: connecting to a service that requires OAuth. If your task does not involve OAuth, use a skill and stop reading.

	ClawHub skill	ClawLink
Cost	Free	7-day trial, then $7.99/month (pricing, checked September 2026)
Best for	Local work, simple API keys	OAuth services
Who maintains it	The skill's author	Us
You register the OAuth app	Usually yes	No
Token refresh	You handle it	Handled
Multiple accounts per service	Rarely supported	Supported
Source you can read	Yes	The plugin, yes. The service is hosted
Call logging	Varies by skill	Built in

OAuth is the dividing line

Most skills never touch your credentials. They read files, run shell commands, format text, scrape public pages, or call an API with a key you paste once. For all of that, a skill is simpler, free, and fully inspectable.

The skills that talk to OAuth services cannot avoid credential handling. Gmail, Google Drive, Calendar, Slack, Instagram, LinkedIn and most CRMs all require a registered OAuth application, a consent flow, and a refresh cycle. That work falls on you, and it falls on you once per service.

Registering an OAuth app yourself takes roughly an hour per service

The sequence is the same everywhere, and none of it is intellectually difficult:

1. Register an application in the provider's developer console
2. Configure the redirect URI and select scopes
3. Pass the provider's verification if the scopes are sensitive. Google's review for Gmail scopes is the usual wall
4. Store the client secret somewhere your agent can read and nothing else can
5. Run the refresh-token exchange, and handle the case where the refresh itself fails
6. Repeat for the next service

It is roughly forty-five minutes of console work per service, plus maintenance that never ends, and none of it is the thing you actually wanted your agent to do.

The part people misjudge is step 6. The first service feels like a learning curve, so you assume the fifth will be quick. It is not. It is the same forty minutes with a different console layout.

Review anything that can reach your accounts, including this one

Anything you install into an agent with access to your machine deserves the scrutiny you would give any dependency. That applies to ClawHub packages and equally to the ClawLink plugin, which is why the plugin's source is public and you can read it before installing.

The practical difference is not trust, it is surface area. A skill that handles its own OAuth needs your client secret somewhere it can reach. A connection through ClawLink means your agent never holds the provider credential at all. It holds a ClawLink API key you can revoke from the dashboard.

If you would rather review everything yourself and hold your own keys, that is a reasonable position and a community skill is the right tool for it.

Most people run both

This is not a question of switching. A normal setup is skills for local work and anything with a simple API key, ClawLink for the OAuth services, and the agent choosing per task. They do not compete for the same slot.

Four situations where the skill route runs out

• Instagram authentication will not complete. Graph API permissions are among the least forgiving to configure by hand.
• The Gmail skill works, then silently stops. Refresh-token expiry is the usual cause, especially for apps left in testing mode.
• You need work and personal accounts at once. Most skills assume a single account per service.
• You are connecting a fifth service. The marginal cost per service is the whole argument.

Is ClawLink a replacement for ClawHub?

No. ClawHub is a skill registry for the whole ecosystem. ClawLink is one plugin handling OAuth-based connections. Most people use both.

Do I still need skills if I use ClawLink?

Yes, for everything that is not an OAuth connection: local file work, shell tasks, scheduling, scraping, and any service with a simple API key.

Why not write my own skill instead?

For one service, that is a reasonable afternoon and you keep full control. The arithmetic changes at four or five services, or the first time a token expires while you are not watching.

Can I self-host ClawLink?

No. The plugin is open source and runs on your machine. The connection service is hosted, and that is the part doing the OAuth work. If holding your own keys is the requirement, a community skill is the right tool.