How we got our ChatGPT plugin approved in 6 hours

Hey makers 👋

Last week we submitted mailX to OpenAI as a ChatGPT plugin. It got approved about 6 hours later.

A few people asked me how we did it, so here is everything.

What OpenAI asks for

1. Verify your business on your OpenAI organization. You need a payment method on file before you can even start.

2. Upload a ZIP with your plugin manifest, your MCP server config and an icon.

3. Verify your domain. You put a token at /.well-known/openai-apps-challenge on your site.

4. Give test prompts: some that should use your tools (we gave 5) and some that should not (we gave 3). Plus a demo video.

5. Tick 6 boxes when you submit.

6. Once it's approved, it's not live yet. You still need to click "Publish". Easy to miss.

What we changed before submitting

• We removed every tool that needed a password. Our SMTP and IMAP tests are useful, but asking for a password inside a chat is a red flag.

• Every tool is read-only, and we said it clearly.

• One tool for the real question. Nobody types "run spf_check". People ask "why are my emails going to spam?", so one tool runs the full check.

• We wrote the test prompts from real questions our users ask. Then we recorded the demo with the same prompts.

You can try the result here: mailX in ChatGPT

If you're building a ChatGPT plugin or an MCP server, ask me anything below. And if you already went through the review, what did they flag for you?

Thami