If you type “make me a product video” into a normal ChatGPT thread, you will get a script. You will not get an MP4. ChatGPT is a conversation. Video is a production job. The useful 2026 question is not “does ChatGPT have Sora again.” It is “which ChatGPT-family surface can actually call a video workspace.”
This tutorial is the install-and-first-clip path for an AI video ChatGPT plugin that runs on Codex, OpenAI’s coding agent. Agent handles intent. Topview Canvas handles generation, placement, and finish. If you came here expecting a GPT Store tile or a chatgpt.com → Plugins search result named Topview, read the next section before you paste anything.
What you can and cannot do in ChatGPT today
Three different products share the word “plugin,” and mixing them is how people waste an afternoon.
A normal ChatGPT chat can write a brief, a hook, or a shot list. It cannot install a local plugin marketplace or keep a node board of your SKU photos.
The ChatGPT Plugin Directory (the Apps directory, renamed on 9 July 2026) is a storefront shared by ChatGPT and Codex. You open Plugins in the sidebar or go to chatgpt.com/plugins, hit plus, and connect an app. As of 3 September 2026, Topview is not a verified listing there. Do not tell a teammate to “search Topview in ChatGPT Plugins.” That sentence is false.
Codex — the local Desktop app or the Codex CLI — is the host Topview actually documents. The plugin page featured command starts with /goal and points at docs/codex.md. Codex adds a marketplace, installs topview@topview, and runs mcp login topview so you finish OAuth in the browser. After a restart and a fresh task, the agent can open Canvas.
Developer Mode MCP on ChatGPT web is a fourth door. That is how some model routers attach a remote server. Topview’s remote marketing server lives on the MCP page, which is a different product from this Plugin. Do not paste the Plugin /goal into Developer Mode, and do not paste the MCP URL into Codex as if they were the same installer.
So the honest line, the one a colleague can check without Slack:
Open the local Codex Desktop app or Codex CLI. Paste the featured /goal from topview.ai/plugin. Do not open chatgpt.com → Plugins and search Topview. A normal ChatGPT web thread cannot run this installer.
If your company only pays for ChatGPT web seats and has no Codex host, stop here. The rest of this article will not unlock inside that browser tab.
Agent versus Canvas (why the plugin is not “another model”)
People hear “plugin” and think “a model with a nicer prompt box.” That is the wrong object.
The agent (Codex) already has your product URL, the “do not invent a second lid” note, and last week’s brief. It is good at deciding what to make and which skill to call.
The Canvas is where shots, references, and revisions live. You can place a packshot, run TikTok Product Ad, extend a clip, crop for 9:16, and keep the same product card attached to the next take. Chat history is a log. It is a bad studio.
Seedance 2.5, Wan 3.0, MiniMax H3, Kling 3, Vidu Q3, and GPT Image 2 are generators that Canvas can call. They are not plugins. Ranking them against “ChatGPT plugins” is a category error. If you only need one raw clip and you already live on a model website, use the model website. If the brief already lives in the agent, install the workbench.
Unlimited plans do not run this path. The product FAQ is explicit: Unlimited does not support automated workflows, including Plugin, MCP, or Skill. Use Pro or above.
Install in three steps (copied from the live page)
Do not invent a shorter slash command. The installer is a one-sentence /goal that tells Codex to read the official guide and finish every step in that guide.
Step 1 — Copy the install command and send it to Codex
From the Topview plugin page, copy this exact prompt:
/goal Read https://github.com/topviewai/plugins/blob/main/docs/codex.md to install TopviewAI, complete OAuth, and set up a new task for me. After installation and authorization succeed, introduce to me what things the Topview plugin can do.
The guide Codex will read is docs/codex.md. In practice that means: confirm you are talking to the Codex binary the desktop app actually uses, add the https://github.com/topviewai/plugins marketplace, add topview@topview, then run mcp login topview and complete the Topview browser login in that same task. If OAuth never opens, the install is not finished. Do not restart as a substitute for login.
The GitHub installation contract also says this has to run on a local desktop or CLI host. A browser-only or sandboxed agent that cannot install software or receive the OAuth callback will fail, and it should say so instead of pretending.
If the repository is still in a private pilot, an anonymous browser tab can 404 even when your laptop’s gh login can clone it. In that case Codex should use the credentials already on the machine — not search GitHub for a look-alike plugin. If your Codex session cannot see the repo, stop and ask whoever owns the GitHub org. Do not install a fork.
Step 2 — Send the creation request to the same agent
Start the new task Codex asked you to open after restart. Old tasks can keep an old plugin registry. Then send the brief the way you would brief an editor: product photos, the SKU name, length, aspect ratio, and the things the model must not invent. You can also name a ready-made skill (next section).
Step 3 — Get the result on Canvas
Codex should call Topview, place the job on Canvas, and hand you something you can inspect — not a mystery ZIP in chat. Review identity first (logo, bottle shape, label language), then motion. If the shot is useful but the crop is wrong, fix it on the board. Do not open a second generator tab and paste the prompt again.
Cursor and Claude Code have their own prompts on the same plugin page. This article stays on Codex because that is the ChatGPT-family host. Do not paste the Codex /goal into Cursor. Do not paste the Cursor restart prompt into Codex.
First job: a 15-second product ad from a packshot
A first render should be boring on purpose. Pick one SKU you already photograph for Amazon or TikTok Shop. You want to learn the handoff, not win an award.
Attach two or three stills: front pack, three-quarter, and a hand-hold if you have it. Then send a request like this — change the nouns, keep the constraints:
Use TikTok Product Ad. Product: 20 oz stainless bottle, matte black, logo printed not embossed. Audience: gym commuters. Length: about 15 seconds. Aspect: 9:16. Hook: the lid clicks shut in one motion before the bag zip. Do not add a second colorway. Do not invent a straw. Keep the logo readable in the first two seconds. After you generate, put the stills and the clip on Canvas so I can pick a take.
Why this works as a test:
The skill is a named object on the product page, so the agent is not guessing a pipeline.
The stills are ground truth. If the bottle grows a straw, you caught a real failure mode.
Fifteen seconds sits inside the range current video models on this stack are built for. Seedance 2.5 commonly lands around 1080p and about 4–30 seconds with multiple references. It is not a native 4K camera replacement. Do not write “4K” into the prompt as if that unlocks a hidden mode.
If you sell on more than one marketplace, you can ask the agent to look up TikTok, YouTube, Amazon, or Shopee context after the object is locked. Scripts that chase a trending comment while the bottle is still wrong are how you get a funny ad for the wrong SKU.
Other skills on the same page, for the second and third jobs: Micro-Drama Ad Creator, Try-On Product Ad, Pain Point Product Ad, plus Ghibli-inspired and cinematic toolkits. Batch ecommerce ads, viral remakes, and short dramas are the workflows the plugin page itself names. Start with one SKU before you batch.
What “done” looks like (and what it does not)
A finished Plugin job is a Canvas project: references attached, one or more takes, a crop you chose, maybe an extend. You should be able to come back tomorrow and generate a second shot without re-uploading the bottle.
It is not:
A GPT that writes a script and links you out to InVideo or Pictory. Those tools are fine. They are websites with a ChatGPT front door.
A Voice-with-video session where ChatGPT looks through your phone camera. That is perception, not production.
A Runway or Seedance tab you opened in another window. If you only needed the model, you never needed the plugin.
Promo copy on the plugin page (3 September 2026): Pro and above can receive five MiniMax H3 videos and five Wan 3.0 videos after authorization. Wan 3.0 Prime is not on that path. Those complimentary outputs are 720p/480p only. Treat that as a trial lane, not the quality ceiling of every later job.
Wan 3.0 itself is listed as a live model on the plugin page (omni-reference workflow). If the page later marks it preview-only, believe the page, not this paragraph.
When you should not use this plugin
Skip it if you need a legal recording, a real person’s unscripted testimonial, or a defect walkthrough. Generate the B-roll; shoot the evidence.
Skip it if your seat is Unlimited and you were hoping automation was included. It is not.
Skip it if you actually wanted Topview Skill (a capability pack you install with a Git URL) or Topview MCP (campaign researcher / strategist / producer on a remote server). Those pages have different paste-in commands. Installing the wrong surface is the most common self-inflicted outage.
Skip it if you refuse to run a local Codex host. There is no honest “paste this into chatgpt.com” shortcut for this Plugin today.
After the first clip
Once one SKU survives a review, ask for a second aspect ratio from the same board, or a pain-point cut that keeps the same packshot. Change one variable per pass. The agent already knows the product. Canvas already has the stills. That is the whole point of a plugin versus a new homepage.
When /chatgpt-plugin goes live it should inherit this tutorial. Until then, install from topview.ai/plugin. If you still have bookmarked /codex-plugin, treat it as the old name for the same OpenAI-agent family — and only if your team has confirmed Codex is the host you are actually opening.
FAQ
Can I generate video in a normal ChatGPT chat with Topview Plugin?
No. The documented installer is Codex Desktop or Codex CLI. Ordinary ChatGPT web chat cannot add the GitHub marketplace or finish mcp login topview. The ChatGPT Plugin Directory is a different storefront; Topview is not a verified listing there as of 3 September 2026.
What do I paste, and where?
Open Codex. Paste the /goal that starts with “Read https://github.com/topviewai/plugins/blob/main/docs/codex.md” from the plugin page. Finish OAuth in that task. Restart when the guide says so. Send the product brief in a new task.
Does this work on the Unlimited plan?
No. Unlimited does not support Topview Plugin, MCP, or Skill automation. Use a plan that the plugin page marks as eligible (Pro and above for the current promo).
