research · openai — Codex skill: UX research from user complaints
Scans fresh complaints about a product you name, groups the pain points and returns a brief with sources.
npx skills add openai/plugins --skill research -a codexWhat research does
The skill runs a one-off scan of user problems for whatever product you point it at. It covers friction in the product UI, onboarding, docs and help, support, workflows, and the developer experience around APIs and SDKs.
It works in steps. First it restates the scope, then it searches public sources: Reddit, X/Twitter, Hacker News, Stack Overflow, GitHub issues and discussions, forums, blogs, reviews, YouTube comments. Internal sources come in only when connectors exist and your request allows it — Slack, Gong, Notion, Google Drive, Linear, Jira, GitHub, support or CRM notes. Findings get clustered into problems, each scored for severity, frequency and confidence, with observed evidence kept apart from inference.
You get an in-chat brief: a short executive read, a ranked list of problems with recommended product moves, a source map and an opportunity map split by timeframe. The skill defers to the plugin router and the critical-overrides file, and it loads user context first, running that context's preflight script when a local shell is available. With no internal connectors the picture stays public, and the skill says so instead of guessing.
What it helps with
- pull current user complaints about a named product
- tell frequent problems apart from loud one-off gripes
- sort findings across onboarding, docs, support and API friction
- rank UX problems by severity and confidence
- get a brief with citations instead of a pile of anecdotes
Example prompts for the agent
- Research user pain in our product over the past few months
- Scan complaints about onboarding and docs, then cluster them by theme
- Run a UX research pass on our API and SDK with sources and severity scores
How to install research
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add openai/plugins --skill research -a codex2Manually: put the files in place
.agents/skills/research/SKILL.mdFor all projects use ~/.agents/skills/
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add openai/plugins --skill research -a claude-code2Manually: put the files in place
~/.claude/skills/research/SKILL.mdCopy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/research/
Manually: put the files in place
.cursor/skills/research/SKILL.mdCursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/
1GitHub CLI
gh skill install openai/plugins research2Manually: put the files in place
.github/skills/research/SKILL.mdPlatform CLI
gemini skills install https://github.com/openai/plugins --path plugins/product-design/skills/researchManually: put the files in place
.devin/skills/research/SKILL.mdThe legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works
Claude.ai
Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills
Step by step, with commands for each platform: Codex skills: how to install, where they live, how to call them
Questions about research
How do I install research in Claude?
Run npx skills add openai/plugins --skill research, then npx skills add openai/plugins --skill research -a codex. The skill file then sits at .agents/skills/research/SKILL.md.
What does the research skill do?
It runs a fresh UX research scan for a product you name: it searches public and internal sources, clusters the problems it finds and ranks them by severity, frequency and confidence. The result is an in-chat brief with a source map and recommendations.
Which sources does it search?
Public ones by default: Reddit, X/Twitter, Hacker News, Stack Overflow, GitHub, forums, blogs, reviews. Internal ones — Slack, Gong, Notion, Google Drive, Linear, Jira, support or CRM notes — only when the connectors are available and the request permits it.
Similar skills
All skills for Agent setup: memory, context, orchestration →research by other authors comes first.
