awesome-list-creator

name	awesome-list-creator
description	Create, curate, and maintain high-quality awesome lists on GitHub. Use when the user wants to build a curated resource list, organize tools by category or role, create a GitHub-based directory, or maintain an existing awesome list. Handles the full lifecycle: research and discover tools, organize by use-case workflows, deduplicate, format as clean markdown tables, add GitHub badges, and publish.
version	1.0.0
license	CC0-1.0
homepage	https://github.com/serenakeyitan/awesome-list-creator
metadata	{"openclaw":{"emoji":"📋","requires":{"bins":["gh","git"]}}}

Awesome List Creator

Create, curate, and maintain high-quality awesome lists on GitHub — from initial research through publishing and ongoing maintenance.

When to Use This Skill

• User wants to create a curated resource list or directory
• User wants to organize tools, libraries, or skills by category
• User wants to build an "awesome list" style GitHub repo
• User asks to maintain, deduplicate, or improve an existing awesome list
• User wants to research and compare tools in a domain

Workflow

Follow these steps in order. Each step builds on the previous one.

Step 1: Define the Organizing Principle

Ask the user how they want to organize. The two dominant patterns are:

1. By role / persona — "Who are you?" (e.g., marketer, engineer, researcher). Best when tools serve different professional workflows.
2. By use case — "What are you trying to do?" (e.g., web scraping, data analysis). Best when tools are task-oriented.

Within either pattern, every section should represent a real workflow step, not just a technical category. For example, under a "Marketing" role:

Research competitors → Write SEO content → Build landing pages → Launch ads → Track analytics

Each arrow is a subsection. Each subsection should have a one-line description explaining what the use case is and why it matters.

Step 2: Research and Collect

For each subsection, find the best tools. Prioritize:

1. Open-source tools with GitHub stars — verifiable quality signal
2. Official MCP servers from the tool vendor (e.g., Stripe MCP, Prisma MCP)
3. Community skills from ClawHub or the OpenClaw skills registry
4. Actively maintained — check last commit date, open issues

Search strategy:

• GitHub search: "MCP server" + [domain] or "openclaw skill" + [domain]
• ClawHub registry: https://clawhub.ai/skills?sort=downloads
• Reference lists: check existing awesome lists in the same space
• Web search for "awesome" + [topic] to find prior art

Step 3: Deduplicate Ruthlessly

This is the most important curation step. For each subsection:

1. Identify tools that serve the same purpose — e.g., two database gateways, two image generators, two Twitter scrapers
2. Keep the one with higher stars or more complete feature set
3. Never keep two tools that do the same thing in the same section
4. Cross-section duplicates are OK if the tool genuinely serves different workflows in each section (e.g., a scheduling tool appearing under both "Sales > Meetings" and "Operations > Calendar")

Step 4: Format as Markdown Tables

Use this exact table format for every section. The <img> spacers enforce consistent column widths across all tables when rendered on GitHub:

### Section Name

One-line description of the use case — what you're trying to accomplish and why.

| Name <img width="250" height="1"> | Description <img width="700" height="1"> |
|------|-------------|
| [Tool Name](https://github.com/org/repo) | One-line description ending with a period. ⭐1.2k |
| [Another Tool](https://clawhub.ai/author/skill) | Another description ending with a period. |

Rules:

• Name column: Link text is the tool name. Link URL goes to GitHub repo, ClawHub page, or official docs.
• Description column: One sentence, ends with a period. Include ⭐ star count if available. Add 🇨🇳 after the name link for China-market-specific tools.
• Star counts: Use abbreviated format — ⭐1.2k, ⭐450, ⭐27k.
• No bold, no extra columns — keep it minimal and scannable.

Step 5: Structure the Full README

<div align="center">

# Awesome [Topic]

[![Awesome](https://awesome.re/badge.svg)](https://awesome.re)
[![PRs Welcome](https://img.shields.io/badge/PRs-welcome-brightgreen.svg)](https://github.com/user/repo/pulls)
[![License: CC0-1.0](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-CC0_1.0-lightgrey.svg)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)

**One-line pitch.**
Second line with more detail.

[Section 1](#section-1) &bull; [Section 2](#section-2) &bull; [Section 3](#section-3)

</div>

---

Brief explanation of how this list is organized and what makes it different.

## Contents

- [Section 1](#section-1)
- [Section 2](#section-2)
- ...

---

## Section 1

*Workflow narrative: Step A → Step B → Step C → Step D.*

### Subsection

... tables ...

---

<p align="right"><a href="#awesome-topic">back to top</a></p>

## Contributing

... guidelines ...

## Related Lists

| List | Description |
|------|-------------|
| [org/repo](link) | Description. |

## License

[![CC0](https://licensebuttons.net/p/zero/1.0/88x31.png)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)

Step 6: Set Up the GitHub Repo

After writing the README, configure the repo:

# Set description
gh repo edit --description "A curated list of [topic] — [value prop]."

# Add topics for discoverability
gh repo edit --add-topic awesome --add-topic awesome-list --add-topic [domain-topics]

# Set homepage to the README anchor
gh repo edit --homepage "https://github.com/user/repo#awesome-topic"

Step 7: Ongoing Maintenance

When maintaining an existing list:

1. Audit for staleness — check if linked repos are archived or unmaintained
2. Deduplicate new additions — every PR should be checked against existing entries in the same section
3. Update star counts — refresh periodically (stars change)
4. Fill workflow gaps — if a subsection has only 1 tool, research whether better options exist now

Quality Standards

• Every tool must have a working link (GitHub, ClawHub, or official docs)
• Descriptions must be factual, not marketing copy
• Star counts must be verifiable
• One tool per purpose per section — no padding
• Sections with zero tools should be removed, not left empty
• Contributing guidelines must include a "no duplicates" rule

Common Pitfalls

• Padding with low-quality entries to make a section look bigger — resist this
• Organizing by technology instead of by use case — think "what is the user trying to accomplish?"
• Keeping both sides of a duplicate because "they're slightly different" — if 90% of the functionality overlaps, pick one
• Missing workflow steps — walk through the real workflow and check if any step has zero tools
• Inconsistent formatting — every table must use the same column widths and structure