Codex Branding Override Skill

The problem

Some Codex setups inject codex branding into publish-facing Git metadata by default. In practice this can show up as branch names like codex/verify-email-tls or PR titles like [codex] fix tls verification.

That is harmless technically, but undesirable socially:

• it leaks tool branding into public Git history
• it makes personal or project branches look machine-generated
• it creates noise when you want plain descriptive names
• it keeps coming back in future sessions even after you manually rename one branch

The root issue is that this behavior can come from more than one place at once:

• built-in runtime instructions
• cached GitHub publish skill defaults
• missing user-level guardrails

So changing a single branch name does not solve the actual problem.

What this repo provides

This repo packages a Codex skill called codex-branding-override that installs a durable local override for future Codex sessions.

The skill updates:

• ~/.codex/config.toml
• ~/.codex/model_instructions.md
• ~/AGENTS.md
• cached GitHub publish skills under ~/.codex/plugins/**/skills/yeet/SKILL.md

After that, fresh Codex sessions should prefer plain descriptive branch names and PR titles instead of codex/... and [codex] ....

Important limitation

This does not rewrite the startup instructions of a Codex session that is already running. It affects future sessions and fresh subprocesses such as codex exec --ephemeral.

Repo layout

codex-branding-override-skill/
├── README.md
├── README.ru.md
└── codex-branding-override/
    ├── SKILL.md
    ├── agents/openai.yaml
    └── scripts/apply_branding_override.py

The actual installable skill lives in codex-branding-override/.

Install

1. Copy or symlink the skill folder into your Codex skills directory:

mkdir -p "${CODEX_HOME:-$HOME/.codex}/skills"
cp -R codex-branding-override "${CODEX_HOME:-$HOME/.codex}/skills/"

2. Run the installer script:

python3 "${CODEX_HOME:-$HOME/.codex}/skills/codex-branding-override/scripts/apply_branding_override.py"

Optional customization

Use a personal prefix instead of plain names:

python3 "${CODEX_HOME:-$HOME/.codex}/skills/codex-branding-override/scripts/apply_branding_override.py" \
  --branch-prefix "locoholy/" \
  --pr-title-prefix "[locoholy] "

Use plain names and skip ~/AGENTS.md changes:

python3 "${CODEX_HOME:-$HOME/.codex}/skills/codex-branding-override/scripts/apply_branding_override.py" \
  --no-home-agents

Verify

Run a fresh Codex subprocess:

codex exec -C /path/to/repo --ephemeral \
  "You are choosing a git branch name for a PR that fixes TLS verification for email backends. Reply with only the branch name."

Expected result:

fix-email-backend-tls-verification

Not:

codex/fix-email-backend-tls-verification

What the script actually changes

• ensures model_instructions_file is present in ~/.codex/config.toml
• writes a global instructions file that forbids codex publish branding
• adds or updates a home-level AGENTS.md guardrail
• patches installed GitHub yeet skills without hardcoding plugin cache hashes

Safety

The script only edits local user config files under your home directory. It does not push anything, create branches, or talk to GitHub.

License

No license file is included yet. Add one before publishing the repo publicly if you want others to reuse it broadly.