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The open registry for OpenAI Codex CLI

Codex CLI Skills

Codex CLI skills are reusable SKILL.md instructions that extend OpenAI's Codex CLI with new capabilities. The same SKILL.md works in Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and any MCP-compatible tool. Install with one command.

$ npx @skills-hub-ai/cli install code-review --target codex

Why install skills in Codex CLI?

Codex CLI is a powerful agent runtime, but out of the box it has no knowledge of your team's conventions, your deployment targets, or the specific way you do code review. Skills fix that by encoding procedural knowledge as portable SKILL.md files.

Instead of writing the same prompts every time you start a Codex session, you install a skill once and Codex loads it on demand whenever the trigger matches the task. Your context window stays clean. Your workflows stay consistent across the team.

And because the SKILL.md format is open, the same skill that runs in Codex also runs in Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and any MCP-compatible tool. No lock-in to one CLI.

Best Codex CLI skills

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  1. 01code-review

    19 installs

    Thorough code review — checks correctness, security, performance, readability, and test coverage. Gives actionable feedback ranked by severity.

    Review
  2. 02quickstart

    13 installs

    Zero to power user in one invoke — detects OS, installs Homebrew/apt/Node.js/Python, sets up Claude Code, authenticates skills-hub CLI, connects MCP servers, and installs recommended skills based on your project. Cross-platform (macOS, Linux, WSL). Idempotent. Use when: 'quickstart', 'setup machine', 'new machine setup', 'install everything', 'get started', 'onboard me', 'setup skills-hub', 'fresh install'.

    Productivity
  3. 03Ralph Wiggum Ship It

    6 installs

    Stop overthinking. Ship the thing. The Ralph Wiggum approach to software delivery: naive boldness backed by the confidence that you can fix anything after it lands. For when your inner perfectionist needs to sit down.

    Build
  4. 04Market Research to Launch

    4 installs

    Full product launch pipeline. Competitive analysis, positioning, landing page SEO, schema markup, social media content, and pitch deck. From idea to launched and marketed.

    Combo
  5. 05Legal Document Factory

    3 installs

    Generates and reviews a complete set of legal documents. NDAs, privacy policies, GDPR compliance, data processing agreements, and formatted legal documents ready for review.

    Combo
  6. 06Small Business in a Box

    2 installs

    Digital infrastructure for a small business. Business model, privacy policy, GDPR compliance, financial model, marketing plan, SEO, email templates, and payment integration.

    Combo
  7. 07one-machine-company

    1 installs

    Set up a single powerful Mac as your entire software company infrastructure — self-hosted CI/CD runners, Remotion video rendering, local LLMs for privacy tasks, TTS inference, and Docker services. Eliminate cloud costs and run everything locally. Use when setting up a local dev server, replacing GitHub Actions with self-hosted runners, configuring Ollama for local AI, building a video pipeline with Remotion and TTS, or optimizing a Mac Studio/Ultra for concurrent workloads.

    Productivity
  8. 08ci-cd

    1 installs

    Set up CI/CD pipelines — generates GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Bitbucket Pipelines with lint, test, build, deploy stages. Detects stack automatically.

    Deploy
  9. 09social-media-content-automator

    1 installs

    A comprehensive social media automation skill that monitors platforms like Reddit and other social media sites to generate, post, and reply with relevant content promoting your app. It ensures content relevance, adheres to platform policies, and incorporates best practices for engagement and safety.

    Productivity
  10. 10refactor

    1 installs

    Systematic code refactoring — extract functions, reduce complexity, eliminate duplication, improve naming, and split large files. Preserves behavior with tests.

    Review
  11. 11perf-audit

    Performance audit — finds N+1 queries, missing indexes, memory leaks, unbounded caches, slow renders, and bundle bloat. Fixes the worst offenders.

    Review
  12. 12Nonprofit Launch Kit

    Everything a nonprofit needs to go from idea to funded. Business plan, grant proposals, pitch deck, marketing materials, legal docs, and financial projections. Chains 8 skills into one pipeline.

    Combo
  13. 13Open Source Health Check

    Full audit of an open-source project. Code quality, security vulnerabilities, documentation gaps, accessibility, performance, and release readiness. Outputs a prioritized action plan.

    Combo
  14. 14Research Paper Pipeline

    Takes a research question from literature review through writing to submission-ready paper. Surveys existing work, generates hypotheses, structures methodology, writes the paper, and prepares a presentation.

    Combo
  15. 15classical-chinese-minimal-output

    Use when the user wants terse, formal Classical Chinese output with austere diction, minimal filler, and strong compression of phrasing. Preserve facts, code, paths, product names, and specialized terms.

    Creative
  16. 16db-schema

    Design or review database schemas — checks normalization, indexes, constraints, naming, migrations, and query performance. Supports PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, and MongoDB.

    Review
  17. 17Teacher Semester Planner

    Plans an entire semester of curriculum. Learning outcomes, lesson plans, grade tracking spreadsheets, lecture slides, and parent communication templates.

    Combo
  18. 18refactor-safe

    Safe refactoring pipeline — generates tests for existing behavior, performs the refactor, then verifies nothing broke. Refactor with confidence.

    Combo

Installing a Codex CLI skill

# Install a single skill for Codex CLI
npx @skills-hub-ai/cli install code-review --target codex

# Install multiple skills (skill bundle)
npx @skills-hub-ai/cli install full-stack-dev-kit --target codex

# Verify the install
ls ~/.codex/skills/

The CLI writes SKILL.md files to ~/.codex/skills/ globally or to .codex/skills/ in your project root if you pass --scope project. The lockfile .skills.json tracks every install for reproducibility.

Frequently asked questions about Codex CLI skills

What are Codex CLI skills?

Codex CLI skills are reusable SKILL.md instructions that extend OpenAI's Codex CLI with specialized capabilities — code review, generating tests, deployment automation, security scanning. They follow the open Agent Skills standard, so the same SKILL.md works in Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and any MCP-compatible tool.

How do I install a skill in Codex CLI?

Run `npx @skills-hub-ai/cli install <skill-slug> --target codex`. The CLI writes the SKILL.md to your Codex skills directory and adds it to `.skills.json` so your team gets the same skills at the same versions.

Where does Codex CLI look for skills?

Codex CLI loads skills from the directory configured in your `codex.toml` (typically `~/.codex/skills/`) and from a `.codex/skills/` folder in your project root. The skills-hub CLI handles both locations automatically.

Are Codex skills compatible with Claude skills?

Yes — both follow the same Agent Skills standard. A skill written for Claude Code runs unchanged in Codex CLI. The CLI handles any tool-specific path conventions.