Codex Skills Tutorial: Stop Repeating Prompts use BEST SKILLS.md — Transcript

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1. 0:00If you're using Codex CLI and still
2. 0:03writing the same instruction again and
3. 0:05again, you're doing it wrong. Codex has
4. 0:08powerful feature called skills. And once
5. 0:10you understand them, your life will
6. 0:12never be the same. And in this tutorial,
7. 0:14I'm going to explain what Codex skills
8. 0:17are, how they are work, real use cases,
9. 0:20best practices, and I'll show you how to
10. 0:23create your own skills step by step.
11. 0:25What are CODC skills? A CODC skill is a
12. 0:29reusable workflow packaged into a simple
13. 0:32folder. At the core, a skill is just a
14. 0:34skill.mg file with a name, a
15. 0:37description, and optional instructions.
16. 0:39It is a simple open format for giving
17. 0:42agents new capability and expertise.
18. 0:45Codex uses something called progressive
19. 0:47disclosure. When Codex starts, it's only
20. 0:50load skills name and descriptions. If
21. 0:52you request much a description, Codex
22. 0:55load the full skills.mmd. depends on the
23. 0:58instructions inside the skill codex
24. 1:01reads scripts templates or reference
25. 1:03files. This is why skill scale so well.
26. 1:06Most of the time they cost zero tokens.
27. 1:09So basically skills solve the main
28. 1:11problem. They given agents access to
29. 1:14knowledge specific context that can load
30. 1:16on demand. That is why almost every AI
31. 1:20coding agents support skills. Okay, let
32. 1:23me show you an example. I'm going to
33. 1:25open the terminal and start Codex. Make
34. 1:28sure you update the Codex to the latest
35. 1:30version. Usually, you will see this
36. 1:32message inside the terminal. If your
37. 1:34Codex version is not up to date, simply
38. 1:37update it and then restart the Codex.
39. 1:39Once the Codex is fully loaded, type the
40. 1:42dollar symbol and you will see two
41. 1:44options. One is a skill creator and
42. 1:47another one skill installer. The first
43. 1:49option allows you to create skills. The
44. 1:52second option allows you to install
45. 1:54existed skills. Let's start with the
46. 1:56skill installer by using keyboard.
47. 1:59Select the skill installer option. Then
48. 2:01you need to specify the skill name. And
49. 2:03if Codex can find that skill, it will
50. 2:05install it. However, quite often Codex
51. 2:08cannot find skill by its name. In this
52. 2:11instance, you need to copy the full path
53. 2:13to GitHub repository with the specific
54. 2:16skill. For instance, some skills you can
55. 2:19find in OpenAI skills repository as copy
56. 2:22the URL to specific skill, paste it into
57. 2:25skill installer and allows codec to
58. 2:28proceed. And if everything is okay, you
59. 2:30will see the success message. All you
60. 2:33need to do after is restart Codex. Then
61. 2:36type dollar symbol and you will see the
62. 2:38install skill. As you could see in the
63. 2:40skill list, I have create plan. This
64. 2:43skill contains specific instruction that
65. 2:46I want to use for planning phase. For
66. 2:48instance, if I call a skill with the
67. 2:50prompt I want to create a to-do python
68. 2:54web app, it will create for me a plan
69. 2:57for this kind of task and it will
70. 3:00precisely follow my instruction in
71. 3:02skill.md file. And as you could see my
72. 3:05simple prompt converted into detailed
73. 3:08plan. So if you have a lot of repetitive
74. 3:10tasks, you could create skills for it.
75. 3:13There are two ways how you can create
76. 3:15custom skills. The first one inside
77. 3:17Codex, type dollar command, then select
78. 3:19skill creator. Specify the name of your
79. 3:22skill and specify the instruction for
80. 3:25that specific skill. After that, Codex
81. 3:27will ask you followup questions and then
82. 3:30it will create a skill. There's
83. 3:32important thing. If inside your project
84. 3:34you don't have Codex folder, Codex will
85. 3:37create skills folder in the root
86. 3:39repository, it means the skill won't be
87. 3:42available immediately. You would need to
88. 3:44install it first. In this instance, use
89. 3:47dollar symbol, then select skill
90. 3:48installer and then specify the path to
91. 3:51your skill. Newly created skills. You
92. 3:53will see the path in the terminal. Just
93. 3:56copy and paste it. Then follow the
94. 3:58instructions on the screen and if
95. 4:00everything is okay the skill will be
96. 4:02installed. After that restart the codeex
97. 4:04and now you will see your newly created
98. 4:07custom skill. As you can see this one my
99. 4:09prompt optimizer. Let's check if it's
100. 4:12working. You can call that specific
101. 4:14skill and then write your prompt and
102. 4:17then you will see optimized version.
103. 4:19Basically the Codex will follow the
104. 4:21instructions inside skill.mg file for
105. 4:23this specific skill. And as you could
106. 4:25see everything is working fine. Okay,
107. 4:27let me open this folder inside my ID. As
108. 4:30you can see this is skill that was
109. 4:32created by Codex. It was created inside
110. 4:35the root folder. So let's move it first
111. 4:38to docex folder and then I will show you
112. 4:41how to create a new skill manually. All
113. 4:44you need create a new folder inside
114. 4:46codex/skills
115. 4:47folder and then inside that folder
116. 4:50create skills.mmd file. The skill
117. 4:53structure is like this. Skill.md is a
118. 4:56main file where you define all the
119. 4:57instructions and you can have scripts
120. 5:00references and assets. These folders are
121. 5:02optional. We need them for complex
122. 5:05skills but for our example just need
123. 5:08skills.mmdg file. Okay, let me move my
124. 5:12new skill to the correct folder.
125. 5:14Initially I created inside my other
126. 5:16skill folder. Now here we specify the
127. 5:18name of the skill, the short description
128. 5:21of the skill. Then you specify the full
129. 5:23instructions and then at the end you can
130. 5:26specify the way how it should be
131. 5:28triggered. You could provide some prompt
132. 5:30examples and once codex see these
133. 5:32examples, it will call this skill. Okay,
134. 5:35let me quickly adjust this skill and
135. 5:37then I will show you it in action. Okay,
136. 5:39my scale is ready. Now let's go back to
137. 5:42the terminal. Let's use dollar command
138. 5:44to see if my skill is there. The
139. 5:46important things if you create skill
140. 5:48manually, you don't have to install it.
141. 5:50It will be automatically there. As you
142. 5:52can see, my writing assistant skill is
143. 5:54here. Now I can type the prompt. I will
144. 5:57write the prompt similar to my example
145. 5:59inside the skill.mg file and the codec
146. 6:02should call my skill automatically. I
147. 6:04don't have to use dollar command. And as
148. 6:07you can see everything is working fine.
149. 6:10Codex called my skill that the
150. 6:12description for this video I'm going to
151. 6:14share with you G repository is different
152. 6:17skills for developers teams and
153. 6:20individuals. Those skills should help
154. 6:22you avoid repetitive work and optimize
155. 6:25your daily workflow. And if you decide
156. 6:28that to create your own skills follow
157. 6:30these simple best practices. First of
158. 6:33all you need to keep skills small.
159. 6:36Basically, one responsibility per skill.
160. 6:38Crystal clear in the description. Try to
161. 6:40don't use script a lot. Perfect
162. 6:42instruction is better. Assume zero
163. 6:44context. It means not rely on memory or
164. 6:47previous messages. And test your skills
165. 6:49with real prompts. If you see it doesn't
166. 6:52trigger, fix the description, fix the
167. 6:54trigger, and try again. Also, keep in
168. 6:56mind that the skills could live in
169. 6:58different level inside system user,
170. 7:01inside repository or even globally. And
171. 7:04that's probably it. Thank you so much
172. 7:06for watching this video until the end.
173. 7:08Thank you so much for your support. If
174. 7:10you like this kind of videos, I
175. 7:12recommend you watch my other videos
176. 7:14because they're really useful. And I
177. 7:16hope to see you in my next videos. Thank
178. 7:19you. Bye.