Setup & Installation
Or with the ClawHub CLI, for registry-managed skill folders outside a full OpenClaw workspace:
Version History
Institution-agnostic: works with any school using EdStem, flexible output directories, auto course name detection
What This Skill Does
Fetches EdStem discussion threads from any course using the official API and saves them as structured markdown files. Each post is tagged [STAFF] or [STUDENT], so instructor responses are clearly separated from student questions. Works with any institution running EdStem.
Uses the official EdStem API rather than scraping, and automatically tags each post with the author's role, something raw API responses don't include.
When to use it
- Checking for new student questions in a course forum
- Syncing multiple course discussion boards to a local directory
- Searching thread history for a specific topic or error message
- Reviewing staff responses to identify recurring course issues
- Automating daily mirroring of course discussions via cron
Example Workflow
Here's how your AI assistant might use this skill in practice.
User asks: Fetch the latest 25 posts from my Machine Learning course (ID 92041)
- 1Runs fetch-edstem.py with course ID 92041 and --limit 25
- 2Authenticates using the bearer token stored in the script
- 3Fetches thread metadata and full content for each thread
- 4Writes each thread to a numbered markdown file with [STAFF] and [STUDENT] role tags
- 5Saves a threads.json index alongside the markdown files
Directory edstem-92041/ containing threads.json and 25 markdown files, each with the full conversation and role labels on every post
Requirements
Accounts, API keys, or tools you or your AI assistant may need to set up while using this skill.