Codex CLI Installs Persistent Background Daemon by Default, Sparking User Concerns

Users have raised concerns regarding the Codex CLI automatically installing a persistent, self-updating background daemon by default. Community discussions reveal various bugs, storage bloat, and permission issues caused by this background process. This issue highlights growing developer friction and security concerns regarding overengineered AI coding tools that execute opaque operations locally. It prompts developers to scrutinize the autonomy and resource consumption of AI agents installed on their systems. While there are no official documented settings to easily disable the daemon, users have found a feature flag (`daemon_auto_start = false`) in the configuration file to bypass it. However, the daemon has been reported to consume significant disk space with old versions and break file permissions.