[STG-2529] fix(openclaw-browserbase): repoint skill sync to browse-plugin

[shrey150]

Linear: STG-2529

What

@browserbasehq/openclaw-browserbase's dynamic skill sync (skills-sync.ts) pulled the browser-automation skill from browserbase/skills, which is stale — it references the deprecated @browserbasehq/browse-cli install command. This repoints it to browserbase/browse-plugin's current skills/browse/SKILL.md, the actively-maintained source for the browse CLI skill.

Both repos use the same top-level skills/ extraction convention, so this is a URL swap in TARBALL_BASE plus updated user-facing strings/docs (src/index.ts, README.md) — no change to the sync mechanism itself.

⚠️ Merge-order dependency — do NOT merge before browserbase/browse-plugin#3

browserbase/browse-plugin#3 is what adds a top-level skills/browse/ directory to browse-plugin's main (currently still the old nested plugins/browse/skills/browse/ layout, pre-flatten). Until #3 merges, this PR's new sync target has no skills/ dir at the repo root, and openclaw browserbase skills sync will fail loudly (verified below) instead of silently succeeding wrong — but it will still be a real regression for the ~180 monthly downloads of this package if merged first.

Recommended sequencing: merge browse-plugin#3, then this PR.

E2E Test Matrix

Command / flow	Observed output	Confidence / sufficiency
pnpm run check-types (this package)	Clean, exit 0	Confirms the refactor didn't break typing.
pnpm run build	Clean, exit 0	Confirms it compiles.
Real syncBrowserbaseSkills({ ref: 'main' }) against browserbase/browse-plugin main, run against the built dist/skills-sync.js	Tarball extracted zero files under the skills/ prefix.	Expected failure, not a bug — proves the code is correctly pointed at browse-plugin, and confirms the merge-order dependency above is real, not theoretical.
Real syncBrowserbaseSkills({ ref: 'shrey/all-marketplace-manifests' }) — the branch that becomes main once #3 merges	filesWritten: ['<tmp>/browse/SKILL.md']	Proves the repoint is correct — once #3 merges, this exact code path extracts exactly the right file with zero further changes needed.
grep -rn "browserbase/skills" src/ README.md	No matches	Confirms no stale references were missed.

Test artifacts (/tmp/oc-sync-test-*) cleaned up after; no leftover state in the repo.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

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Note

Medium Risk
Skill sync behavior changes for all setup/startup flows; merging before browse-plugin exposes the new skills/ layout can break sync for existing users until upstream lands.

Overview
Dynamic skill sync for @browserbasehq/openclaw-browserbase now pulls from browserbase/browse-plugin instead of the stale browserbase/skills repo. The tarball URL in skills-sync.ts (TARBALL_BASE) is the functional change; extraction still uses the same skills/ prefix and strip logic, now documented for browse-plugin-<sha>/skills/browse/.

User-facing strings in src/index.ts (setup, skills sync, startup auto-sync logs and CLI help) and README.md describe the new source and the canonical browse skill instead of browser-automation / functions. A patch changeset records the package bump.

Deploy note: sync against browse-plugin main only works once that repo has a root-level skills/ tree (per upstream PR); until then, skills sync can fail with “zero files under the skills/ prefix.”

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Stale skills block auto-sync

Medium Severity

After repointing to the browse skill, hasBrowserbaseSkills still treats any directory with a SKILL.md as installed. Existing users who already synced the old skills keep those stale files, so startup auto-sync never fetches browse, and status keeps reporting skills as installed.

Additional Locations (1)

• packages/openclaw-browserbase/src/index.ts#L479-L483

 

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