OpenAI upgrades its Responses API to support agent skills and a complete terminal shell

Until recently, the practice of building AI agents has been a bit like training a long-distance runner with a thirty-second memory. Yes, you could give your AI models tools and instructions, but after a few dozen interactions — several laps around the track, to extend our running analogy — it would inevitably lose context and start hallucinating. With OpenAI's latest updates to its Responses API — the application programming interface that allows developers on OpenAI's platform to access multiple agentic tools like web search and file search with a single call — the company is signaling that the era of the limited agent is waning. The updates announced today include Server-side Compaction, Hosted Shell Containers, and a new "Skills" standard for agents.With these three major updates, OpenA