plugin-creator

Original🇺🇸 English
Translated
1 scriptsChecked / no sensitive code detected

Create and scaffold plugin directories for Codex with a required `.codex-plugin/plugin.json`, optional plugin folders/files, and baseline placeholders you can edit before publishing or testing. Use when Codex needs to create a new local plugin, add optional plugin structure, or generate or update repo-root `.agents/plugins/marketplace.json` entries for plugin ordering and availability metadata.

3installs
Added on

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add openai/codex plugin-creator

Plugin Creator

Quick Start

  1. Run the scaffold script:
bash
  # Plugin names are normalized to lower-case hyphen-case and must be <= 64 chars.
  # The generated folder and plugin.json name are always the same.
# Run from repo root (or replace .agents/... with the absolute path to this SKILL).
# By default creates in <repo_root>/plugins/<plugin-name>.
python3 .agents/skills/plugin-creator/scripts/create_basic_plugin.py <plugin-name>
  1. Open
    <plugin-path>/.codex-plugin/plugin.json
    and replace
    [TODO: ...]
    placeholders.
  2. Generate or update the repo marketplace entry when the plugin should appear in Codex UI ordering:
bash
# marketplace.json always lives at <repo-root>/.agents/plugins/marketplace.json
python3 .agents/skills/plugin-creator/scripts/create_basic_plugin.py my-plugin --with-marketplace
For a home-local plugin, treat
<home>
as the root and use:
bash
python3 .agents/skills/plugin-creator/scripts/create_basic_plugin.py my-plugin \
  --path ~/plugins \
  --marketplace-path ~/.agents/plugins/marketplace.json \
  --with-marketplace
  1. Generate/adjust optional companion folders as needed:
bash
python3 .agents/skills/plugin-creator/scripts/create_basic_plugin.py my-plugin --path <parent-plugin-directory> \
  --with-skills --with-hooks --with-scripts --with-assets --with-mcp --with-apps --with-marketplace
<parent-plugin-directory>
is the directory where the plugin folder
<plugin-name>
will be created (for example
~/code/plugins
).

What this skill creates

  • If the user has not made the plugin location explicit, ask whether they want a repo-local plugin or a home-local plugin before generating marketplace entries.
  • Creates plugin root at
    /<parent-plugin-directory>/<plugin-name>/
    .
  • Always creates
    /<parent-plugin-directory>/<plugin-name>/.codex-plugin/plugin.json
    .
  • Fills the manifest with the full schema shape, placeholder values, and the complete
    interface
    section.
  • Creates or updates
    <repo-root>/.agents/plugins/marketplace.json
    when
    --with-marketplace
    is set.
    • If the marketplace file does not exist yet, seed top-level
      name
      plus
      interface.displayName
      placeholders before adding the first plugin entry.
  • <plugin-name>
    is normalized using skill-creator naming rules:
    • My Plugin
      my-plugin
    • My--Plugin
      my-plugin
    • underscores, spaces, and punctuation are converted to
      -
    • result is lower-case hyphen-delimited with consecutive hyphens collapsed
  • Supports optional creation of:
    • skills/
    • hooks/
    • scripts/
    • assets/
    • .mcp.json
    • .app.json

Marketplace workflow

  • marketplace.json
    always lives at
    <repo-root>/.agents/plugins/marketplace.json
    .
  • For a home-local plugin, use the same convention with
    <home>
    as the root:
    ~/.agents/plugins/marketplace.json
    plus
    ./plugins/<plugin-name>
    .
  • Marketplace root metadata supports top-level
    name
    plus optional
    interface.displayName
    .
  • Treat plugin order in
    plugins[]
    as render order in Codex. Append new entries unless a user explicitly asks to reorder the list.
  • displayName
    belongs inside the marketplace
    interface
    object, not individual
    plugins[]
    entries.
  • Each generated marketplace entry must include all of:
    • policy.installation
    • policy.authentication
    • category
  • Default new entries to:
    • policy.installation: "AVAILABLE"
    • policy.authentication: "ON_INSTALL"
  • Override defaults only when the user explicitly specifies another allowed value.
  • Allowed
    policy.installation
    values:
    • NOT_AVAILABLE
    • AVAILABLE
    • INSTALLED_BY_DEFAULT
  • Allowed
    policy.authentication
    values:
    • ON_INSTALL
    • ON_USE
  • Treat
    policy.products
    as an override. Omit it unless the user explicitly requests product gating.
  • The generated plugin entry shape is:
json
{
  "name": "plugin-name",
  "source": {
    "source": "local",
    "path": "./plugins/plugin-name"
  },
  "policy": {
    "installation": "AVAILABLE",
    "authentication": "ON_INSTALL"
  },
  "category": "Productivity"
}
  • Use
    --force
    only when intentionally replacing an existing marketplace entry for the same plugin name.
  • If
    <repo-root>/.agents/plugins/marketplace.json
    does not exist yet, create it with top-level
    "name"
    , an
    "interface"
    object containing
    "displayName"
    , and a
    plugins
    array, then add the new entry.
  • For a brand-new marketplace file, the root object should look like:
json
{
  "name": "[TODO: marketplace-name]",
  "interface": {
    "displayName": "[TODO: Marketplace Display Name]"
  },
  "plugins": [
    {
      "name": "plugin-name",
      "source": {
        "source": "local",
        "path": "./plugins/plugin-name"
      },
      "policy": {
        "installation": "AVAILABLE",
        "authentication": "ON_INSTALL"
      },
      "category": "Productivity"
    }
  ]
}

Required behavior

  • Outer folder name and
    plugin.json
    "name"
    are always the same normalized plugin name.
  • Do not remove required structure; keep
    .codex-plugin/plugin.json
    present.
  • Keep manifest values as placeholders until a human or follow-up step explicitly fills them.
  • If creating files inside an existing plugin path, use
    --force
    only when overwrite is intentional.
  • Preserve any existing marketplace
    interface.displayName
    .
  • When generating marketplace entries, always write
    policy.installation
    ,
    policy.authentication
    , and
    category
    even if their values are defaults.
  • Add
    policy.products
    only when the user explicitly asks for that override.
  • Keep marketplace
    source.path
    relative to repo root as
    ./plugins/<plugin-name>
    .

Reference to exact spec sample

For the exact canonical sample JSON for both plugin manifests and marketplace entries, use:
  • references/plugin-json-spec.md

Validation

After editing
SKILL.md
, run:
bash
python3 <path-to-skill-creator>/scripts/quick_validate.py .agents/skills/plugin-creator