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 also owns model selection, API model migration, and prompt-upgrade guidance. 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.

• For model-selection, "latest model", or default-model questions, fetch https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/latest-model.md first. If that is unavailable, load references/latest-model.md .

• For model upgrades or prompt upgrades, run node scripts/resolve-latest-model-info.js only when the target is latest/current/default or otherwise unspecified; otherwise preserve the explicitly requested target.

• Preserve explicit target requests: if the user names a target model like "migrate to GPT-5.4", keep that requested target even if latest-model.md names a newer model. Mention newer guidance only as optional.

• If current remote guidance is needed, fetch both the returned migration and prompting guide URLs directly. If direct fetch fails, use MCP/search fallback; if that also fails, use bundled fallback references and disclose the fallback.

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 whether the request is general docs lookup, model selection, a model-string upgrade, prompt-upgrade guidance, or broader API/provider migration.

• For model-selection or upgrade requests, prefer current remote docs over bundled references when the user asks for latest/current/default guidance.

• Fetch https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/latest-model.md .

• Find the latest model ID and explicit migration or prompt-guidance links.

• Prefer explicit links from the latest-model page over derived URLs.

• For explicit named-model requests, preserve the requested model target and do not silently retarget to the latest model. Mention newer remote guidance only as optional.

• For dynamic latest/current/default upgrades, run node scripts/resolve-latest-model-info.js , then fetch both returned guide URLs directly when possible.

• If direct guide fetch fails, use the developer-docs MCP tools or official OpenAI-domain search to find the same guide content.

• If remote docs are unavailable, use bundled fallback references and say that fallback guidance was used.

• For model upgrades, keep changes narrow: update active OpenAI API model defaults and directly related prompts only when safe.

• Leave historical docs, examples, eval baselines, fixtures, provider comparisons, provider registries, pricing tables, alias defaults, low-cost fallback paths, and ambiguous older model usage unchanged unless the user explicitly asks to upgrade them.

• Do not perform SDK, tooling, IDE, plugin, shell, auth, or provider-environment migrations as part of a model-and-prompt upgrade.

• If an upgrade needs API-surface changes, schema rewiring, tool-handler changes, or implementation work beyond a literal model-string replacement and prompt edits, report it as blocked or confirmation-needed.

• For general docs lookup, search docs with a precise query, fetch the best page and exact section needed, and answer with concise citations.

Reference map

Read only what you need:

• https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/latest-model.md -> current model-selection and "best/latest/current model" questions.

• references/latest-model.md -> bundled fallback for model-selection and "best/latest/current model" questions.

• references/upgrade-guide.md -> bundled fallback for model upgrade and upgrade-planning requests.

• references/prompting-guide.md -> bundled fallback for prompt rewrites and prompt-behavior upgrades.

Quality rules

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

• Keep migration changes narrow and behavior-preserving.

• Prefer prompt-only upgrades when possible.

• Do not invent pricing, availability, parameters, API changes, or breaking changes.

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

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

• If official docs and repo behavior disagree, state the conflict and stop before making broad edits.

• 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.