30 ChatGPT and Codex plugins, skills and commands

You will read a learning plan through Google Drive, check its source and save drive-check.txt. Allow about 90 minutes. Prepare desktop ChatGPT on Windows, your Google Account and AI-practice. A no-connection option is included; explore GitHub, Gmail, skills and commands separately as needed.

In class

The teacher demonstrates one connection, from choosing the account to checking the returned link. The group compares the answer with the original and explains what establishes successful document reading through the plugin.

Four additions for familiar tasks

Google Drive can provide your learning document, GitHub your published website files, and Gmail a lesson email. All three appear in ChatGPT’s plugin catalogue. Each needs the relevant account and connection; a Google Account without a Gmail mailbox does not provide Gmail messages. [F301][F306]

The fourth addition is a skill: saved instructions for checking scripts. Catalogue plugins work in supported ChatGPT interfaces and desktop Codex, but not the Codex editor extension. Before installing, check availability, plan conditions and requested permissions in your application. [F301]

Exercise: read a plan from Google Drive

Prepare the document

1. In your browser, open docs.google.com/create using your Google Account. A new document opens. Click its title at the top and name it AI-practice-plan. [F308]
2. Enter these three lines in the document:

Monday: check the headings in personal-site.
Wednesday: check task saving in My Day.
Friday: read the video script aloud.

1. Wait for saving to finish. Copy the document’s address from the browser into Notepad for comparison later. Keep the document private; we will use your connected account.

Install and connect

1. In desktop ChatGPT, open Plugins, find Google Drive, open its card and select the + button. Complete the Google connection. Check that you are connecting the account containing your document. [F301]
2. Read the permissions. This exercise needs reading. If connecting is unavailable or you do not accept the permissions, cancel. Paste the three lines into Chat and send: “Return three day–task pairs from this text without additions.” Compare the pairs with the original lines, then save the reply by following step 8.
3. After installation, start a new Work conversation. Type @, select Google Drive, add this request and send it with the arrow button. [F301][F306]

Find AI-practice-plan in my Google Drive.
Read it and return three day–task pairs and a link
to the document. Do not edit it or create calendar events.
If several documents have this name, show their links
before proceeding.

Compare and save evidence

1. Open the returned link. Compare it with the address you saved; check the title and all three lines. Monday must not become Tuesday, nor checking headings become publishing the website.
2. Save Documents\AI-practice\drive-check.txt in Notepad with the three checked items and, for Drive retrieval, the source link. For the manual route, write “Source: text pasted manually” instead. Close the file and reopen it from its folder.

Finish the connection when it is no longer needed

To remove the plugin from the application, open its card and choose Uninstall plugin. Separately granted Google access may remain. [F301]

To revoke it, open myaccount.google.com/linkedapps, your Google Account’s linked-apps page. Select Access to your Google Account, the relevant application, See details, then Remove access → Confirm. Check which access you are removing; do not confuse it with Google sign-in. Further reading will need renewed access, while your saved drive-check.txt remains available. [F307]

GitHub: read your website

Use personal-site on GitHub from Lesson 14. Find GitHub in Plugins, add it and connect your account. Check which repositories and actions the access request covers. In a fresh Work conversation, select GitHub with @. [F306]

Open both links and compare the headings with the HTML and the stylesheet name with styles.css. This checks the GitHub version; your local copy may differ.

Gmail: find an assignment without sending mail

Connect your own Gmail mailbox through its plugin card; it should contain a lesson email. Permissions including writing or sending make the connection broader than read-only. Restrictions in our request do not change those permissions. [F301][F306]

In a fresh Work conversation, select Gmail with @ and send:

Open the matched email in Gmail and check its assignment. The reply should say if there is no match. You can prepare a reply draft in chat without sending it.

Create a script-checking skill

Open AI-practice in desktop Codex, with content\desk-script.txt from Lesson 20. Type $skill-creator, select the creator, add the request below and press Enter. The new skill’s rules will be saved in SKILL.md; text instructions are sufficient for this check. [F305]

Create a desk-script-check skill in this learning project,
without additional programs. Check only the supplied script:
five shots, their total duration, short on-screen captions,
and the lesson 20 objects — a book, notebook, pen and box.
Mark unknown information as a question. Do not edit
the script. Report problems with the relevant line
and a suggested correction. Show where SKILL.md is saved.

Read the created file and check its scope. In a fresh conversation in this project, select $desk-script-check and ask it to check content/desk-script.txt. Restart Codex if the skill does not appear. [F305]

Test the skill with this separate sample: “Five shots: 5, 9, 9, 9, 8 seconds. Total: 45 seconds. Captions unspecified.” A correct answer finds 40 and requests missing captions and object details. Repeat after changing the rules. The book includes tools/desk-script-check/SKILL.md and a tests folder with three trials; these files are not installed automatically.

Six desktop Codex commands

In the Codex message field, type /, choose a command and confirm with Enter. This is the application’s field, not PowerShell. The available menu depends on the current environment. [F302]

For /review, you need Git changes or branches to compare. If you only copied HTML into a folder, start with an ordinary request to read the file. Before /compact, update project-brief.txt with progress, unknowns and the next task. Summarising a conversation does not back up files.

A small website goal

In File Explorer, copy Documents\AI-practice\personal-site to a neighbouring folder named personal-site-goal; add -2 if that name is taken. In Codex, create or select a local project attached to this copy, as in Lesson 6. Check for index.html and styles.css. Use /plan to request an outline for adding learning outcomes. Read it, select /goal and enter:

Add a “What I have learned” section to index.html
with three items: create a page, check a task list,
prepare a script. Preserve other sections and styling.
Do not publish anything. Check the text and appearance
in wide and narrow windows. If visual inspection is
unavailable, report it as not performed. Show changed files
and a report against these conditions.

Send the task. While it runs, controls above the composer let you pause, resume, edit or clear the goal. Pausing lets you return later; clearing a goal does not undo completed changes. [F304] Open index.html from this copy, find the three items and narrow the window. Compare the report with your own inspection.

Reference for CLI users

A CLI is a program controlled by typed commands. Enter these forms inside a running Codex CLI session. PowerShell is Windows’ command shell; do not enter them directly there or in ordinary web chat. The main exercise needs no CLI. [F303]

Home practice

1. Use project-brief.txt from Lesson 9: it already contains a condition and a next task. If a copy is in connected Google Drive, use the plugin; otherwise paste its text into Chat. Ask for one constraint and one next step from this note.
2. Save the reply, your method of supplying data and any correction in AI-practice\tools-home-check.txt. Compare the source link or original lines. The result passes when it retains the constraint without adding unsupported facts.

Self-test

1. Does uninstalling the plugin necessarily revoke Google access?
2. A skill accepts 45 as the sum of 5 + 9 + 9 + 9 + 8. Did it pass?
3. Should you enter /goal pause in PowerShell to stop desktop Codex?

Words you will need

• Connection: access granted to a particular external account.
• Skill: saved rules for a particular kind of task.
• Goal: a description of the result the agent continues working towards.
• Completion criterion: something you can check in a file or service.