Personal user has undeletable “Default templates” plugin marked installed-by-admin / installed-by-default

What version of Codex are you using?

Codex CLI: 0.144.1
Platform: macOS, arm64
Plan/workspace: individual user on a personal plan, not a managed/workspace-admin Codex setup

What issue are you seeing?

Codex shows an OpenAI curated plugin named “Default templates” / openai-templates as installed and enabled, but I cannot remove it. The UI presents it as if it was installed by an admin:

• Installed by admin
• Source: Remote · OpenAI Curated
• Auth: Auth on use
• Version: local 0.1.0
• App: Default templates
• Skills include:
• artifact-template-analytics-dashboard
• artifact-template-business-review
• artifact-template-design-report
• artifact-template-experiment-analysis
• artifact-template-financial-budget
• artifact-template-investment-committee-memo
• artifact-template-legal-memorandum
• artifact-template-market-trends-report
• artifact-template-minimal-letterhead
• artifact-template-operating-calendar
• artifact-template-operating-review
• artifact-template-project-kickoff
• artifact-template-project-tracker
• artifact-template-sales-pipeline
• artifact-template-simple-dark-mode
• artifact-template-simple-light-mode
• artifact-template-strategy-memorandum
• artifact-template-system-design
• artifact-template-team-alignment
• artifact-template-three-statement-forecast

I do not understand why I have an undeletable “installed by admin” plugin when I am an individual user on a personal plan and there is no workspace admin.

What I tried

I tried removing the plugin through the CLI:

codex plugin remove openai-templates@openai-curated --json

That returned success-like output, but the plugin came back / remained visible in a fresh session.

I also tested via a short-lived app-server stdio session. plugin/installed reports:

{
  "id": "openai-templates@openai-curated-remote",
  "remotePluginId": "plugin_connector_1p_2330815c823c8191941e5dc465bb899f",
  "name": "openai-templates",
  "installed": true,
  "enabled": true,
  "installPolicy": "INSTALLED_BY_DEFAULT",
  "installPolicySource": "IMPLICIT_CANONICAL_APP",
  "authPolicy": "ON_USE",
  "displayName": "Default templates"
}

Calling plugin/uninstall with the exact plugin id returned {} but did not actually uninstall it:

{
  "pluginId": "openai-templates@openai-curated-remote",
  "response": { "result": {} }
}

Immediately afterward, plugin/installed still showed the plugin as installed and enabled.

Calling plugin/uninstall with the raw remote plugin id returned a backend 403:

Installed-by-default plugins cannot be uninstalled

Workaround

I was able to suppress the connector and skills by manually adding config overrides:

[apps.connector_openai_default_templates]
enabled = false

[[skills.config]]
name = "openai-templates:artifact-template-analytics-dashboard"
enabled = false

# repeated for all openai-templates:* skills

After that, skills/list no longer returns the openai-templates skills. However, plugin/installed still reports the plugin itself as installed and enabled because it is treated as INSTALLED_BY_DEFAULT / IMPLICIT_CANONICAL_APP.

Expected behavior

For a personal, non-managed user:

1. Codex should not label a default OpenAI plugin as “Installed by admin” when there is no admin/workspace policy.
2. If the user removes or disables a default plugin, that choice should persist across fresh sessions.
3. plugin/uninstall should either actually uninstall/disable the plugin or return a clear actionable error. Returning {} while leaving the plugin installed/enabled is misleading.
4. There should be a first-class way to opt out of the Default templates plugin and all of its skills.

Actual behavior

The plugin is undeletable, remains installed/enabled according to app-server, and is treated by the backend as an installed-by-default implicit canonical app. The only working mitigation I found is manual config overrides for the connector and every skill.

Related issues

This seems related to, but more specific than:

• #29450