Codex Skills vs Plugins

Understand the difference between a reusable skill and a plugin bundle that can package skills, MCP, hooks, commands and integrations.

Skill

A skill is a focused reusable capability, generally organized around instructions in SKILL.md and optional supporting resources.

Plugin

A plugin is a broader distribution unit. The current OpenAI Plugins repository shows plugins that can include skills plus additional surfaces such as MCP configuration, commands, agents, hooks and assets.

Why this matters in Artifiner

We keep the entity types separate. A bundled skill points to its parent plugin instead of pretending it is independently installable, while MCP and hooks remain discoverable as distinct capabilities.

Use this codex skills vs plugins guide with the live catalog

Installation and capability behavior can change as repositories evolve. Use this guide to understand the model, then open the relevant entity page and follow its canonical source for the current command, manifest, endpoint or prerequisite. This keeps the editorial explanation useful without turning a static guide into a substitute for upstream documentation.