OpenAI Documentation Access: Setup, Usage & Best Practices

What This Skill Does

Provides authoritative, current guidance from OpenAI developer docs using the developers.openai.com MCP server. Covers Codex, Responses API, Chat Completions, Apps SDK, Agents SDK, Realtime API, model capabilities, and limits with accurate citations.

Getting Started

MCP Setup (if missing):

codex mcp add openaiDeveloperDocs --url https://developers.openai.com/mcp
# Restart codex

Tools:

• mcp__openaiDeveloperDocs__search_openai_docs - Find relevant pages


• mcp__openaiDeveloperDocs__fetch_openai_doc - Get exact sections


• mcp__openaiDeveloperDocs__list_openai_docs - Browse/discover pages

Key Features

OpenAI Products Covered

Apps SDK: Build ChatGPT apps with web UI + MCP server

Responses API: Unified endpoint for stateful, multimodal, tool-using interactions

Chat Completions: Generate responses from conversation messages

Codex: OpenAI's coding agent for software development

gpt-oss: Open-weight reasoning models (120b and 20b)

Realtime API: Low-latency multimodal experiences

Agents SDK: Build agentic apps with tools, context, handoffs

Workflow

Clarify product scope (Codex, API, Apps SDK)

Search docs with precise query

Fetch best page and specific section

Answer with concise guidance and citations

Provide code snippets only when docs support them

Usage Examples

Finding Specific Information

User: "How do I use function calling with GPT-4?"

1. search_openai_docs("function calling GPT-4")
2. fetch_openai_doc(best_page, anchor="function-calling")
3. Provide answer with citation to specific doc page

Checking Current Limits

User: "What's the token limit for GPT-4 Turbo?"

1. search_openai_docs("GPT-4 Turbo token limit")
2. fetch_openai_doc with specific section
3. Report exact limit with doc citation

Best Practices

1. Always Use MCP Tools First

Don't use web search for OpenAI questions when MCP is available.

2. Cite Sources

Always provide doc URLs:

According to the [Chat Completions Guide](https://developers.openai.com/...), 
function calling allows...

3. Keep Quotes Short

Paraphrase with citations rather than long quotes.

4. Handle Multiple Pages

If docs differ across pages, call out differences and cite both.

5. Say When Docs Don't Cover It

If docs don't address user's need:

"The OpenAI docs don't currently cover [X]. 
You might need to check the community forum or support."

6. Install MCP if Missing

If MCP tools fail:

Run install command yourself with escalated permissions

Only ask user if escalated attempt fails

Ask user to restart codex

Re-run doc search

When to Use

Use when:

• User asks about OpenAI products/APIs


• Need current model capabilities


• Checking API limits or parameters


• Learning how to use OpenAI features


• Verifying implementation patterns

Don't use when:

• Question is about non-OpenAI products


• User wants general programming help


• Docs clearly won't have the answer

Related Skills

• Gemini API Dev Skill - For Google Gemini docs

Source

Organization: OpenAI
Skill Name: openai-docs
Description: Use when users ask how to build with OpenAI products or APIs and need up-to-date official documentation with citations.