OpenAI Docs

Provide authoritative, current guidance from OpenAI developer docs using the developers.openai.com MCP server. Always prioritize the developer docs MCP tools over web.run for OpenAI-related questions. This skill may also load targeted files from references/ for model-selection and GPT-5.4-specific requests, but current OpenAI docs remain authoritative. Only if the MCP server is installed and returns no meaningful results should you fall back to web search.

Quick start

• Use mcp__openaiDeveloperDocs__search_openai_docs to find the most relevant doc pages.

• Use mcp__openaiDeveloperDocs__fetch_openai_doc to pull exact sections and quote/paraphrase accurately.

• Use mcp__openaiDeveloperDocs__list_openai_docs only when you need to browse or discover pages without a clear query.

• Load only the relevant file from references/ when the question is about model selection or a GPT-5.4 upgrade.

OpenAI product snapshots

• Apps SDK: Build ChatGPT apps by providing a web component UI and an MCP server that exposes your app's tools to ChatGPT.

• Responses API: A unified endpoint designed for stateful, multimodal, tool-using interactions in agentic workflows.

• Chat Completions API: Generate a model response from a list of messages comprising a conversation.

• Codex: OpenAI's coding agent for software development that can write, understand, review, and debug code.

• gpt-oss: Open-weight OpenAI reasoning models (gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b) released under the Apache 2.0 license.

• Realtime API: Build low-latency, multimodal experiences including natural speech-to-speech conversations.

• Agents SDK: A toolkit for building agentic apps where a model can use tools and context, hand off to other agents, stream partial results, and keep a full trace.

If MCP server is missing

If MCP tools fail or no OpenAI docs resources are available:

• Run the install command yourself: codex mcp add openaiDeveloperDocs --url https://developers.openai.com/mcp

• If it fails due to permissions/sandboxing, immediately retry the same command with escalated permissions and include a 1-sentence justification for approval. Do not ask the user to run it yet.

• Only if the escalated attempt fails, ask the user to run the install command.

• Ask the user to restart Codex.

• Re-run the doc search/fetch after restart.

Workflow

• Clarify the product scope and whether the request is general docs lookup, model selection, a GPT-5.4 upgrade, or a GPT-5.4 prompt upgrade.

• If it is a model-selection request, load references/latest-model.md .

• If it is an explicit GPT-5.4 upgrade request, load references/upgrading-to-gpt-5p4.md .

• If the upgrade may require prompt changes, or the workflow is research-heavy, tool-heavy, coding-oriented, multi-agent, or long-running, also load references/gpt-5p4-prompting-guide.md .

• Search docs with a precise query.

• Fetch the best page and the exact section needed (use anchor when possible).

• For GPT-5.4 upgrade reviews, always make the per-usage-site output explicit: target model, starting reasoning recommendation, phase assessment when relevant, prompt blocks, and compatibility status.

• Answer with concise guidance and cite the doc source, using the reference files only as helper context.

Reference map

Read only what you need:

• references/latest-model.md -> model-selection and "best/latest/current model" questions; verify every recommendation against current OpenAI docs before answering.

• references/upgrading-to-gpt-5p4.md -> only for explicit GPT-5.4 upgrade and upgrade-planning requests; verify the checklist and compatibility guidance against current OpenAI docs before answering.

• references/gpt-5p4-prompting-guide.md -> prompt rewrites and prompt-behavior upgrades for GPT-5.4; verify prompting guidance against current OpenAI docs before answering.

Quality rules

• Treat OpenAI docs as the source of truth; avoid speculation.

• Keep quotes short and within policy limits; prefer paraphrase with citations.

• If multiple pages differ, call out the difference and cite both.

• Reference files are convenience guides only; for volatile guidance such as recommended models, upgrade instructions, or prompting advice, current OpenAI docs always win.

• If docs do not cover the user’s need, say so and offer next steps.

Tooling notes

• Always use MCP doc tools before any web search for OpenAI-related questions.

• If the MCP server is installed but returns no meaningful results, then use web search as a fallback.

• When falling back to web search, restrict to official OpenAI domains (developers.openai.com, platform.openai.com) and cite sources.