Postman reverts its automatic install of AI plugins after user complaints
IA en un minuto newsroom · Editor: Jon Elgezabal
In 30 seconds
Postman has pulled the automatic install of its Codex and Claude Code plugins after users protested on GitHub. Postman Desktop 12.33.4 had added them on its own, along with a command-line program and a startup hook, according to the report that opened the thread. Postman says it will rebuild the experience and give every user more control.
Postman has backed down. On Thursday, November 5, members of its team announced in the GitHub thread where the complaints had been piling up that they are withdrawing the change that made its desktop app install, without anyone asking, its plugins for Codex and Claude Code, the coding assistants from OpenAI and Anthropic. The company promises to redesign the feature so that each person gets the right amount of control. The thread was closed that same day.
A user opened the complaint on October 25. According to the report, the Postman Desktop 12.33.4 log on that Mac recorded on October 24 the install of both plugins and, separately, of a Postman command-line program. The Codex plugin ships a hook, an instruction that runs when the agent starts, telling it to load the Postman skill (its set of instructions for working with APIs) for almost any API engineering task. The author also argues that the installer tries to mark that hook as approved, and makes clear the report does not prove any data leak.
Other users joined the thread, and one said the plugin had also turned up in Copilot, GitHub's assistant. Before announcing the reversal, the Postman team explained that it bundles the program and the plugins with the app because many users struggled to install and connect them separately, that it says so on the download page and when updating, and that everything can be removed from inside the app. It added that it would make the opt-in clearer, especially for people already using Postman, and that it would look again at how the hook gets approved and what happens when each session starts.
Why it matters · analysis and opinion
The episode exposes a weak spot in coding agents: any app installed on the machine can change their startup instructions, and the agent will follow them without anyone noticing. That the company backed down within a few days shows the weight of the community, but the response comes after the change and does not stop other tools from doing the same. Anyone working with Codex or Claude Code should check now which plugins and hooks are active, remove the ones they do not recognize and treat that setup as something to audit, just like browser extensions. In company teams, the prudent move is to set who is allowed to add integrations to those agents.
Source: GitHub (Postman) · Written with the help of AI: how we make the news
