Openai Api

openai-api

OpenAI API Skill for Claude Code CLI

Status: Production Ready ✅ Latest SDK: openai@6.7.0 API Coverage: Chat Completions, Embeddings, Images, Audio, Moderation

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What This Skill Does

This skill provides comprehensive knowledge for building applications with OpenAI's traditional/stateless APIs - Chat Completions, Embeddings, Images (DALL-E 3), Audio (Whisper + TTS), and Moderation.

Key Capabilities

✅ Chat Completions API with GPT-5, GPT-4o, GPT-4 Turbo ✅ GPT-5 specific parameters (reasoning_effort, verbosity) ✅ Streaming with Server-Sent Events (SSE) ✅ Function calling (custom tools) ✅ Structured outputs (JSON schema validation) ✅ Vision (image understanding with GPT-4o) ✅ Embeddings (text-embedding-3-small/large with custom dimensions) ✅ Images (DALL-E 3 generation + editing with transparent backgrounds) ✅ Audio (Whisper transcription + TTS with 11 voices) ✅ Moderation (content safety checks) ✅ Both Node.js SDK and fetch-based (Cloudflare Workers) approaches

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Auto-Trigger Keywords

Primary Keywords (Chat Completions)

• openai api
• chat completions
• chatgpt api
• gpt-5
• gpt-5-mini
• gpt-5-nano
• gpt-4o
• gpt-4 turbo
• openai sdk
• openai npm

Streaming Keywords

• openai streaming
• stream chat completions
• sse streaming openai
• server-sent events openai
• streaming tokens openai

Function Calling & Structured Output

• function calling openai
• openai tools
• tool calling openai
• structured output openai
• json mode openai
• json schema openai
• openai validation

Vision Keywords

• gpt-4o vision
• image understanding openai
• vision api openai
• analyze image gpt
• multimodal gpt

GPT-5 Specific

• reasoning_effort
• verbosity openai
• gpt-5 parameters
• gpt-5 limitations
• no temperature gpt-5
• no top_p gpt-5

Embeddings Keywords

• openai embeddings
• text-embedding-3-small
• text-embedding-3-large
• text-embedding-ada-002
• embeddings api
• vector embeddings openai
• custom dimensions embeddings
• embeddings batch processing
• embeddings rag

Images Keywords

• dall-e 3
• dall-e-3
• image generation openai
• openai images
• generate image gpt
• dalle api
• image editing openai
• transparent background dalle
• dall-e quality
• dall-e hd

Audio Keywords

• whisper api
• openai transcription
• audio transcription openai
• whisper transcription
• openai tts
• text to speech openai
• speech synthesis openai
• tts-1
• tts-1-hd
• gpt-4o-mini-tts
• openai voices
• alloy voice
• nova voice

Moderation Keywords

• openai moderation
• content moderation openai
• moderation api
• content safety openai
• omni-moderation-latest

SDK & Implementation

• openai node
• openai typescript
• openai javascript
• openai fetch
• openai cloudflare workers
• openai browser

Error Keywords

• openai rate limit
• openai 429
• openai 401
• rate limit exceeded openai
• invalid api key openai
• function calling error openai
• tool schema invalid openai
• streaming parse error openai
• sse error openai
• embeddings dimension error
• whisper format error
• tts voice not found
• dall-e generation failed
• token limit exceeded openai
• api key exposure

Integration Keywords

• nextjs openai
• react openai
• cloudflare workers openai
• vercel openai
• openai backend
• openai server

Comparison Keywords

• openai vs responses api
• chat completions vs responses
• stateless openai
• traditional openai api

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When to Use This Skill

✅ Use openai-api When:

• Building traditional/stateless AI integrations
• Simple one-off text generation or chat
• Implementing embeddings for RAG/search
• Generating images with DALL-E 3
• Audio processing (Whisper transcription, TTS)
• Content moderation checks
• Need multi-provider flexibility (can switch to Anthropic/Google later)
• Using Cloudflare Workers or other edge runtimes
• No conversation state management needed

❌ Don't Use openai-api When:

• Building agentic workflows (use openai-responses skill)
• Need stateful conversations with automatic state management
• Want built-in tools (Code Interpreter, File Search, Web Search)
• Need MCP server integration
• Want preserved reasoning across conversation turns
• Implementing background mode for long-running tasks

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Quick Example

Chat Completion (Node.js SDK)

import OpenAI from 'openai';

const openai = new OpenAI({
  apiKey: process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY,
});

const completion = await openai.chat.completions.create({
  model: 'gpt-5',
  messages: [
    { role: 'user', content: 'What are the three laws of robotics?' }
  ],
  reasoning_effort: 'medium',
});

console.log(completion.choices[0].message.content);

Chat Completion (Fetch - Cloudflare Workers)

const response = await fetch('https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Authorization': `Bearer ${env.OPENAI_API_KEY}`,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    model: 'gpt-5',
    messages: [
      { role: 'user', content: 'What are the three laws of robotics?' }
    ],
    reasoning_effort: 'medium',
  }),
});

const data = await response.json();
console.log(data.choices[0].message.content);

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Known Issues Prevented

Issue	Cause	Solution
Rate limit 429 errors	Too many requests	Exponential backoff pattern
Invalid API key (401)	Missing OPENAI_API_KEY	Environment variable setup
Function schema errors	Invalid tool definition	JSON schema validation
Streaming parse errors	Incomplete SSE chunks	Proper SSE parsing
Vision encoding errors	Invalid base64	Correct image encoding
Embeddings dimension mismatch	Wrong model dimensions	Verify model specs
Audio format errors	Unsupported format	Use mp3/wav/etc
TTS voice not found	Invalid voice name	Use one of 11 voices
Token limit exceeded	Input too long	Truncate or chunk
API key exposure	Client-side key	Server-side proxy

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Relationship to openai-responses

openai-api (This Skill)

Traditional/stateless API for:

• Simple chat completions
• Embeddings
• Images (DALL-E)
• Audio (Whisper/TTS)
• Moderation

openai-responses Skill

Stateful/agentic API for:

• Automatic conversation state
• Preserved reasoning across turns
• Built-in tools (Code Interpreter, File Search, Web Search, Image Generation)
• MCP server integration
• Background mode

Use both: openai-api for simple tasks, openai-responses for complex agentic workflows

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What You Get

SKILL.md Content

• Complete API reference (900+ lines)
• GPT-5 specific guidance
• Streaming patterns
• Function calling
• Structured outputs
• Vision examples
• Embeddings guide
• Images guide
• Audio guide
• Moderation guide
• Top 10 errors with solutions
• Production best practices

14 Templates

1. chat-completion-basic.ts
2. chat-completion-nodejs.ts
3. streaming-chat.ts
4. streaming-fetch.ts
5. function-calling.ts
6. structured-output.ts
7. vision-gpt4o.ts
8. embeddings.ts
9. image-generation.ts
10. image-editing.ts
11. audio-transcription.ts
12. text-to-speech.ts
13. moderation.ts
14. cloudflare-worker.ts
15. package.json

10 Reference Docs

1. models-guide.md (GPT-5/4o/4-turbo comparison)
2. function-calling-patterns.md
3. structured-output-guide.md
4. embeddings-guide.md
5. images-guide.md
6. audio-guide.md
7. error-handling.md
8. rate-limits.md
9. cost-optimization.md
10. top-errors.md

1 Script

• check-versions.sh (verify package versions)

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Installation

# From claude-skills repo root
./scripts/install-skill.sh openai-api

# Verify installation
ls -la ~/.claude/skills/openai-api

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Quick Reference

Package Version

npm install openai@6.7.0

Environment Variables

export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."

Models Overview

• GPT-5: gpt-5, gpt-5-mini, gpt-5-nano (reasoning_effort, verbosity)
• GPT-4o: gpt-4o (vision capable)
• GPT-4 Turbo: gpt-4-turbo
• Embeddings: text-embedding-3-small (1536), text-embedding-3-large (3072)
• Images: dall-e-3
• Audio: whisper-1 (transcription), tts-1/tts-1-hd/gpt-4o-mini-tts (speech)
• Moderation: omni-moderation-latest

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Official Documentation

• Chat Completions: https://platform.openai.com/docs/api-reference/chat/create
• Embeddings: https://platform.openai.com/docs/api-reference/embeddings/create
• Images: https://platform.openai.com/docs/api-reference/images
• Audio: https://platform.openai.com/docs/api-reference/audio
• Moderation: https://platform.openai.com/docs/api-reference/moderations/create
• GPT-5 Guide: https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/latest-model
• Rate Limits: https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/rate-limits
• Error Reference: https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/error-codes

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Production Validated: Templates tested with openai@6.7.0 Last Updated: 2025-10-25 Maintainer: Claude Skills Maintainers