Feature request: Let Codex discover and recommend marketplace plugins for user needs
Summary
Codex should be able to search the plugin marketplaces visible to the current user, evaluate relevant plugins against the user's stated need, and propose installing the best candidates through an explicit user-approval flow.
Today, Codex can reason about plugins that are already installed or exposed to the current task, and it may be able to request installation of a predefined set of recommended plugins. However, it does not have a general-purpose way to discover arbitrary plugins from the user's available marketplace catalog. This leaves users manually reading and comparing a potentially very large directory.
User problem
Plugin directories can contain hundreds or thousands of entries. Requiring users to open and read each listing defeats much of the value of an agentic product.
A user should be able to say:
Find the best plugin for summarizing my project updates from Slack and Jira.
Codex should then:
- Search the plugin catalogs available to that user.
- Rank relevant candidates by capability, compatibility, permissions, trust/source, and overlap with already installed plugins.
- Explain the top recommendation and meaningful alternatives.
- Ask for confirmation before installation.
- Trigger the normal installation and authorization flow after confirmation.
- Start using the plugin only after installation, authorization, and any new-task/session requirement is satisfied.
Proposed capability
Please expose agent-callable marketplace discovery and installation-request primitives, conceptually similar to:
search_plugins(query, filters)get_plugin_details(plugin_id)compare_plugins(plugin_ids)request_plugin_install(plugin_id)
Discovery results should reflect the same catalog and policy boundaries as the user's Plugins UI, including:
- OpenAI-curated plugins
- Workspace-provided plugins
- Personal marketplaces
- Account, workspace, platform, and regional availability
- Administrator restrictions
- Already installed or disabled state
Semantic search would be more useful than name-only search because users usually describe desired outcomes rather than knowing plugin names.
Safety and control
Installation and authorization should remain user-controlled:
- Codex may search, inspect, compare, and recommend without installing.
- Codex must show the plugin identity, source/publisher, requested permissions, external services, and relevant data-sharing implications.
- Installation must require explicit user confirmation.
- External-service authentication must use the existing trusted authorization UI.
- Workspace and administrator policies must remain authoritative.
- Codex should not silently enable hooks, broad permissions, or destructive capabilities.
Why this is different from skill discovery
A skill finder searches reusable instructions and workflows. It is not a substitute for searching installable plugins that may provide apps, MCP tools, connectors, hooks, and external-service access.
Users should not need to understand that implementation distinction before asking Codex to extend its capabilities.
Suggested acceptance criteria
- Codex can search every plugin marketplace visible in the current Plugins UI.
- Results include enough structured metadata for reliable comparison.
- Codex can identify missing capabilities from a natural-language request and recommend relevant plugins.
- Duplicate and overlapping plugins are clearly identified.
- No plugin is installed or authorized without explicit confirmation.
- After installation, Codex clearly states whether a new task/session or additional sign-in is required.
- The feature works consistently across Codex desktop, CLI, and IDE surfaces wherever plugin browsing is supported.
Related but distinct issues
Existing issues cover marketplace sources, missing plugin listings, or individual recommendation bugs. This request is specifically for an agent-facing discovery and user-approved installation workflow across the marketplace catalog.