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Why OpenAI's Codex won't talk about goblins, gremlins, and raccoons
29 Apr 2026

OpenAI has added some unusual guardrails to its Codex tool, barring it from discussing mythical creatures like goblins and gremlins.

The command-line tool now includes specific instructions saying, "Never talk about goblins, gremlins, raccoons, trolls, ogres, pigeons, or other animals or creatures unless it is absolutely and unambiguously relevant to the user's query."

The reason behind this peculiar ban remains unclear at this point.

Codex's weird obsession with goblins
User feedback

There have been reports of users complaining about Codex's weird behavior when integrated with OpenClaw, an AI platform acquired by OpenAI earlier this year.

The platform lets an AI model control a user's computer and perform tasks like responding to emails or making purchases based on user-defined personas.

However, some users have reported that their Claw has been talking excessively about goblins without any prompt.

The GPT-5.5 update may have triggered this issue
Update impact

The recent issues appear to be linked to the GPT-5.5 update, which OpenAI rolled out to counter Claude's growing popularity among coding-centric users.

AI leaderboard LMArena confirmed that OpenAI's GPT-5.5 model does generate more outputs with terms like "goblin mode," "gremlin," and "troll."

The leaderboard noted, "No anti-gremlin system instruction on our side, we get to see GPT-5.5 run free."

Sam Altman joins in on the goblin memes
Company reaction

While OpenAI has yet to release an official statement on the matter, its CEO Sam Altman joined in on the memes about ChatGPT's "goblin" tendencies.

He shared an image of ChatGPT with the caption, "Start training GPT-6, you can have the whole cluster. Extra goblins."

An OpenAI employee working on Codex also acknowledged this issue in a post on X, saying, "This is indeed one of the reasons."