From Walled Garden to Open Field: Putting your GPTs into Pickaxe

OpenAI's GPT store has been the most anticipated platform since Apple first launched the App Store for the iPhone. Since November’s Dev Day, prompt engineers, developers, and AI tinkerers have been actively crafting GPTs using the built-in GPT builder as well as writing their own prompts to perform a variety of tasks. Now there’s a “GPT Store” where these creations can be perused and used anyone.

But two just days after launch, it’s already clear the GPT store is missing some key features users want. Here's a breakdown of what the GPT store lacks.

GPT Store shortcomings:

1. You can't white-label your GPTs.

2. You can't embed GPTs into your website.

3. You can't monitor responses on your GPTs.

4. Only people with paid ChatGPT accounts can use your GPTs! The majority of the internet is 'locked out'.

Fortunately, there's a solution to all these problems. Hosting your GPT on Pickaxe, allows you to do all this with your GPTs, and more. And moving your GPT out of the walled garden that is OpenAI and ChatGPT is very easy. It takes less than a few minutes!

This blog post explains how to take your OpenAI custom GPT and turn it into a Pickaxe, step by step. By hosting your GPT on Pickaxe it will be available to everyone. No ChatGPT+ subscription needed. Plus, you'll be able to embed your GPT directly into any website as a Pickaxe.

Step 1 - Go to your GPT's 'Configure' page

To get started, go to the GPT that you’d like to re-create in Pickaxe. Click on the name of the GPT in the upper left corner and select the option “Edit GPT”.

This will redirect you to the 'configure' page for your GPT. This has all your information you'll need from OpenAI.

Step 2 - Go to Pickaxe

Next, go to the Pickaxe chatbot builder. This page is where you will build your chatbot.

Step 3 - Copy your GPT instructions

Copy the text in the “Instructions” section of your GPT and paste it in the section where it says “Role” on the Pickaxe chatbot builder.

If you have a Pickaxe Gold account you will then want to select GPT-4-turbo or GPT-4 in the bottom of the role box to ensure it behaves similarly to the GPT you created.

The "Role" box in Pickaxe is the same as the "instructions" in the GPT builder.

Step 4 - Copy your GPT name & description

Now, in the right-hand side of the Pickaxe chatbot builder, you can give your Pickaxe a name and description. Copy the name and description from your GPT or come up with your own.

The Pickaxe builder. The right-hand side is s preview of your Pickaxe where you can set a name and description.

Step 5 - Add a Knowledge Base (optional)

This is an optional step. If you added documents to your GPT as a knowledge base, you'll want to add those same documents to your Pickaxe.

To do this, click on the "upload files" button under the Knowledge Base section in the builder. You will be prompted to upload the files. These files will be added to your chatbot's knowledge base and used as information to help inform its answers.

OpenAI's GPT builder knowledge base

You can upload files directly into your chatbot's knowledge base.

Step 6 - Advanced Settings (optional)

Finally you may want to go into the “Advanced Options” section and change some settings for your Pickaxe. If you want your chatbot to produce really, really long answers you can customize the "maximum output length" setting. Or if you want to limit the length of inputs that users can enter, then you can adjust the "maximum input length" setting here too. For example, if your GPT takes in long essays, then you may want to adjust this setting to accommodate that use case.

Step 7 - Publish your Pickaxe

Now click Next step > in the lower right and you will be taken to the configuration screen for your Pickaxe.

Step 8 - Customize your Pickaxe's design

You're almost done! Now you can give your chatbot custom cover art, chat icons, set placeholder text, and adjust whether it's privacy settings. Once you're satisfied, just hit "Publish Pickaxe!"

You can design your chatbot on this page.

Step 8 - Share your GPT as a Pickaxe or embed it!

Now your GPT is a fully-functional Pickaxe! Now you can share it with the world. And anyone, regardless of whether they have a Pickaxe account or not, can use it! To share your Pickaxe, just click the word “copy” in the upper right corner. If you are looking to embed your Pickaxe on a website, just click the Embed <> button.

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When you click the embed button, you will have the opportunity to customize the embed's color, size, font, and more on a separate page. There you will get the embed code which you can copy/paste to embed your chatbot into any website.

By liberating you from the confines of GPT Builder (limited only to people with ChatGPT+ subscriptions), Pickaxe opens up a world of possibilities for GPT creations to reach a broader audience. Whether you're a seasoned developer or a curious tinkerer, the journey from a simple GPT model to a widely accessible Pickaxe tool is now just a few clicks away.

This post was written by Pickaxe evangelist, Josh Wolf. If you haven't already signed up for Pickaxe, use the discount code “JOSH” and save 15 percent on your first three months of membership.

How to convert a GPT into a Pickaxe

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