Plugins and skills

# Plugins and skills Source: [https://openai.com/academy/codex-plugins-and-skills/](https://openai.com/academy/codex-plugins-and-skills/) OpenAIApril 23, 2026 OpenAI Academy Plugins and skills help Codex do more specific kinds of work\. ## Plugins **Plugins**help Codex connect to other tools and sources of information\. For example, a plugin might help Codex reference files in Google Drive, scan your email inbox, or work with information from another tool you use\. Plugins can be simple and useful right away\. If you already have the information you need in a connected plugin, you can ask Codex to use it instead of copying and pasting everything into the thread\. To access plugins, select**plugins**in the top left corner of Codex\. From there, you can see plugins that are recommended or already installed, browse the plugins library, or create a new plugin\. Creating a new plugin usually requires more technical expertise than creating a skill\. ## Skills A**skill**is like a playbook Codex can follow\. It teaches Codex the specific way you, your team, or your company does a task\. That matters because the same task can look different from team to team\. Ten companies might structure a newsletter ten different ways\. Your company may have a specific voice for customer\-facing messages\. Your sales team may have a required process for pulling account data, checking usage, and preparing a book of business review\. A skill helps Codex follow those rules without making you explain them every time\. For example, a skill might teach Codex: - How your team writes a company newsletter - How to prepare a customer account brief - How to turn notes into your team’s project plan format - How to review external communications for your brand voice - Which tools to check, and in what order, for reliable account data - How to create a weekly report using your team’s preferred structure To access skills, select**Plugins**in the top left corner of Codex\. From there, you can see skills that are recommended or already installed, browse the skills library, or create a new skill\. We won’t go into detail about creating skills here—but it’s pretty simple, and you can ask Codex to walk you through it step\-by\-step\. Once you want Codex to use a skill, press**$**in the thread and select the skill you want to call on\. For example, if you’ve created a specific skill called “Customer Update” which prepares weekly updates in your team’s preferred format, you might write: “$customer\-update Create a weekly customer update using the notes and files in this folder\.” A simple way to think about it: Use a**plugin**when Codex needs to use information from another tool\. Use a**skill**when Codex needs to follow your process\. Use**both**when Codex needs to follow your team’s process using information from your connected tools\. For example: “$google\-doc\-html\-email\-stager Use the Google Drive plugin to pull the latest files from this folder and draft this week’s project update in our team’s standard format\.”