To create a ChatGPT plugin, you need to know what the manifest.json is. Let’s discuss it and explore how PluginLab can assist you with it.
What is this ChatGPT Plugin manifest?
As described in the OpenAI documentation, the manifest.json file is a configuration file that helps ChatGPT understand how your plugin operates.
As specified by OpenAI, this file is mandatory to install the plugin.
Moreover, this file has many constraints, and we will go over some of them in this article.
Dealing with validation constraints (the hard way)
Manifest location
Your manifest file must be included at your API's domain level.
For example, if your backend API is accessible at https://pluginlab.ai, then OpenAI is going to expect your manifest file to be hosted at https://pluginlab.ai/.well-known
Caution: if OpenAI does not find any file at this address, your plugin is never going to install.
Some constraints
Here’s the simplest version of a manifest file.
All the available fields are explained in the OpenAI Documentation, and we advise you to check them thoughtfully.
These are subject to change, but as of now, here are some of the limits:
- 50 character max forname_for_human
- 50 character max for name_for_model
- 120 character max for description_for_human
- 8000 character max just for description_for_model (will decrease over time)
In addition, specific fields must satisfy the following requirements:
- api.url - the URL provided to the OpenAPI spec must be hosted at the same level or a subdomain of the root domain.
- legal_info - The second-level domain of the URL provided must be the same as the second-level domain of the root domain.
- contact_info - The second-level domain of the email address should be the same as the second-level domain of the root domain.
Read more about it here.
Validation of all these constraints can be painful. In the next section, we’ll explain how PluginLab could assist you.
Dealing with validation constraints (the easy way)
You don’t have any way to bypass the validation constraints.
After all, these constraints make sense and ensure your plugin is working properly.
However, at www.pluginlab.ai we’ve built many internal tools that help you to configure and monitor your ChatGPT Plugins.
If you need to programmatically validate the constraints of your manifest, you can use our open-source npm package.
It’s easy to use and could solve all your problems in one line of code.
If you are looking for Chat GPT plugin analytics and insights then you should probably look to PluginLab.ai.
In addition to other features such as manifest versioning, and error monitoring, our UI will help you to configure and validate your manifest with no effort.
Congrats, you are now a master (yes, you are!) at writing manifest.
