A non-blocking file download utility featuring automatic retries, status tracking via Ontology, and channel-specific notifications.
Install & Download
1. ClawHub CLI
The fastest way to install a skill directly from the registry.
npx clawhub@latest install background-download
2. Manual Installation
Copy the skill folder to one of these locations
~/.openclaw/skills/ <project>/skills/ Priority: Workspace > Local > Bundled
3. Prompt Installation
Copy this prompt to OpenClaw to install it automatically.
Help me install background-download using Clawhub. If Clawhub is not installed, install it first (npm i -g clawhub).
Prefer to download?
Get the raw skill files in a ZIP archive.
What is Background Download Skill?
The Background Download skill is designed to handle file transfers asynchronously within the Openclaw Skills ecosystem. By offloading download tasks to the background, it ensures that the primary agent session remains responsive and non-blocking for the user. It leverages the power of system tools like curl or wget to provide reliable, resumable downloads.
This skill is particularly valuable for developers who need to manage large file assets or automate document retrieval without interrupting the workflow. It maintains a persistent record of all tasks through a structured knowledge graph, ensuring that download states are preserved even across system restarts or session timeouts.
Background Download Skill Use Cases
- Fetching large software installers or datasets without blocking the AI agent interaction.
- Automating file downloads in environments with unstable internet connections using the resume feature.
- Integrating background file retrieval into complex devops or data processing pipelines.
- Managing high-volume download queues with centralized status tracking and notifications.
How Background Download Skill Works
- The user or a calling skill initiates a download request, which creates a DownloadTask entry in the Ontology with a pending status.
- The system forks a background process to handle the download and immediately returns control to the user.
- The background process updates the task status to downloading and executes the transfer using curl or wget with resume support.
- If the download succeeds, the status is updated to completed and a notification is dispatched to the original communication channel.
- In the event of a failure, the skill automatically retries the transfer up to a configurable maximum limit before marking the task as failed.
Background Download Skill Setup
To get started with this skill for Openclaw Skills, ensure the ontology skill is installed and initialized. You must also have curl or wget available on your system path. Use the following command to initiate a download:
python3 scripts/download.py start --title "My File" --url "https://example.com/data.zip" --path "./downloads/data.zip" --channel "your_channel_id"
Background Download Skill Data Schema & Taxonomy
The skill manages data through the DownloadTask object within the Ontology. Below is the metadata taxonomy used:
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| title | Human-readable name of the download task |
| url | The source URL of the file |
| path | The local filesystem path where the file is saved |
| status | Current state: pending, downloading, completed, failed, or archived |
| retry_count | The number of times the download has been retried |
| max_retries | The maximum allowed retry attempts |
| created_by_channel | Identifier for the notification callback channel |
Background Download Skill Advanced Features
- Non-blocking architecture allows for high-concurrency file management within Openclaw Skills.
- Intelligent heartbeat mechanism that automatically cleans up zombie tasks and archives old records.
- Support for broken connection resumption using standard CLI flags (-c).
- Cross-skill integration via Python API for automated background workflows.
- Multi-channel notification support to keep users informed across different messaging platforms.
SKILL.md
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