OpenAI Skills are self-contained capability packages for Codex. Each skill is a folder containing aDocumentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/openai/skills/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
SKILL.md instruction file, optional scripts, reference documents, and assets — everything an AI agent needs to reliably perform a specific task, from deploying to Vercel to transcribing audio to navigating a Figma design.
Introduction
Learn what skills are, how they work, and when to use them.
Quickstart
Install your first skill and put it to use in minutes.
Create a Skill
Build a custom skill with the bundled scaffolding tools.
Skill Catalog
Browse all system and curated skills ready to install.
How Skills Work
Skills use a three-level loading system that keeps Codex’s context window efficient. Only what’s needed is ever loaded.Metadata is always present
Every skill’s
name and description from SKILL.md frontmatter are always in Codex’s context — roughly 100 words per skill. This is how Codex decides which skill to activate.SKILL.md body loads on trigger
When Codex determines a skill is relevant, the full
SKILL.md body — workflow steps, decision trees, script usage — is loaded. Keep it under 500 lines.Skill Tiers
System Skills
Pre-installed with every Codex instance. Includes
skill-creator, skill-installer, imagegen, openai-docs, and plugin-creator.Curated Skills
Maintained in
skills/.curated — install by name using $skill-installer. Covers deployment, dev tools, design, media, and productivity.Experimental Skills
Work-in-progress skills in
skills/.experimental — install by specifying the folder path or a GitHub URL.