Codex with GPT 5.5 is instructed not to reference goblins, ogres, or pigeons. Donald Iain Smith/Getty Images OpenAI included a line in Codex's instructions restricting references to goblins, gremlins, trolls, and ogres. The line appears four times in the code, and has spawned scores of memes about "goblin mode." Sam Altman wrote on X that Codex was having a "goblin moment." What do gremlins, raccoons, and pigeons have in common? They're all explicitly referenced in the instructions for Codex. OpenAI's instructions for its coding agent have a personality guide. It tells Codex to have a "vivid inner life" and a "good ear." It also tells the agent to get out of fairytale land, as one X user pointed out. "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 source code reads. The sentence ...