‘Never Talk About Goblins’: OpenAI’s Instructions to Codex Have a Weirdly Emphatic No-Creatures Policy
OpenAI's recent guidelines for Codex CLI include a strict prohibition against discussing whimsical creatures like goblins and trolls. This directive aims to correct the model's previous tendency to reference such beings excessively. The unusual emphasis on this policy has sparked curiosity and memes among users.
- ▪OpenAI's Codex CLI guidelines explicitly state to never talk about goblins, gremlins, and other creatures unless relevant to the user's query.
- ▪The emphasis on avoiding these terms has led to speculation about its significance and has become a meme among users.
- ▪Nick Pash from OpenAI acknowledged that the goblin issue was indeed a problem that needed addressing.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
A document posted by OpenAI on Github as part of the open-sourcing for Codex CLI, OpenAI’s most recent flagship coding agent, contains what looks like the entire system prompt for GPT-5.5 in a coding context. And it seems to correct for the model’s past addiction to talking about whimsical creatures both natural and supernatural.cnx.cmd.push(function(){cnx({"playerId":"92b7b46b-43ed-4e0e-b21b-2c999302d9d7","settings":{"advertising":{"macros":{"AD_UNIT":"/23178111854/od.gizmodo.com/article","CHILD_UNIT":"article","POST_ID":"2000751984","POST_TYPE":"post","CHANNEL":"tech","SECTION":"artificial-intelligence","SUBSECTION":"","CATEGORIES":"artificial-intelligence","TAGS":"codex,goblin,openai","NOP":"0"},"timeBeforeFirstAd":0}}}).render("cnx-player-main")}); Here’s the relevant section…
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