48,000 files deleted in 103 seconds: Claude Code just destroyed a developer’s work at the click of a button, and it shows why everyone should be careful around AI agents
https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/do-not-let-programs-run-commands-on-your-machine-claude-code-allegedly-deleted-48-000-files-in-103-seconds-and-its-a-terrifying-warning-about-ai-agents
245 points · 90 comments · view on lemmy.world
90 Comments
redlemace@lemmy.world · 93 pts · 11h
That's on you then. Restore from backup and accept having lost a day's work.
CombatWombat@feddit.online · 37 pts · 11h
Funny story about those backups
criss_cross@lemmy.world · 66 pts · 11h
No push to remote? If you’re working on something you care about you shouldn’t only have a local copy.
Klear@piefed.world · 53 pts · 11h
Backups are for smart people. Not who we're dealing with here.
criss_cross@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 11h
Oh I’m aware. I’m just clarifying that a .git folder isn’t a backup lol.
devfuuu@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 9h
What? But it says right there on the box. GIT = Great Interface for Takups
one_old_coder@piefed.social · 24 pts · 11h
Yep, make sure that you pushed somewhere on a private branch. But the new devs with their nocode-NoSQL-AI tools have a hard time understanding difficult concepts like "files" or "folders."
Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it · 2 pts · 6h
I am afraid to know what does that mean
CombatWombat@feddit.online · 6 pts · 10h
Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I feel like programming tools shouldn't blow away your checked in changes, even if you haven't pushed yet. You do you, though.
virku@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 9h
A power surge or some other force majeure could though. Push your shit off site.
CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de · 2 pts · 11h
I learned about thst that one day…
SeeMarkFly@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 11h
I learned the hard way
I was going to the high school of hard knocks when they offered me a scholarship to the college of hard knocks, I TOOK IT!
dontbelievethis@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 9h
Knock knock
SeeMarkFly@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 8h
I'm here.
MummifiedClient5000@feddit.dk · 25 pts · 11h
A local git repo is not a backup.
towerful@programming.dev · 8 pts · 8h
Git is just a folder
JoMiran@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 11h
My backup scheme:
Computer --> 3 different cloud drives and github.
Also
Computer --> Wyoming home NAS --> USB external drive (weekly), swapped out every year and the old one stored in a waterproof gunsafe in the basement.
Wyoming home NAS --> Florida office NAS -- > USB external drive (weekly)
Wyoming home NAS --> Austin office NAS --> Tape (monthly) --> IronMountain for 7 years.
If you are a single dev, all it takes is 14 USB sticks. 12 monthly backups and two for daily backups that you rotate weekly.
Coldcell@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 10h
Just for my sanity, do you have to power up usb drives every so often or they corrupt?
JoMiran@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 9h
If you mean USB sticks (thumb drives), I have a few 20 year old ones that I dust off from time to time when all I need is something small. Some have been in a drawer for years before I touched them again.
Jason2357@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 5h
Theoretically, they need tl be re-written every few years at most. Read everything off, format and re-write. Checking for corruption would be adviasable when you do it.
redlemace@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 10h
Good thing you added that. I'm so old-school/paranoid that I must have ownership of and physical access to the backup media to be able to count them as a backup.
JoMiran@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 9h
I'm about to kick off a full offline backup of my GOG library over the holidays because I need that physical backup.
Wirlocke@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 8h
My backup scheme is either Github or Google Drive, whatever I have uploaded in Discord DMs, and a snowballing pile of unorganized hoarded files, which One Day™ I will sort.
JoMiran@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 8h
One thing you could do is buy the.largest external drive you can get on black friday sales. Then just copy everything in it. No sort. Just dump it all in there. Think of it like clearing the table unto a large garbage bag. Then unplug it, put it in the closet, and do it again whenever you remember.
Even a mess like that is better than no backup at all.
redlemace@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 11h
If you don't include .git/ in your backup you simply have no backup.
one_old_coder@piefed.social · 17 pts · 11h
That's the new normal.
redlemace@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 11h
Maybe for some but then i'm happy to be old-school. I can live with the fact not everyone can/wants to follow the 3-2-1 strategy but expect no sympathy if you have no backup's at all
Gullible@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 11h
That's ridiculous. Why wouldn't you just set Claude to back everything up before it deletes everything? Checkmate, atheists
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 11h
I have a backup, it doesn't prevent screaming
toebert@piefed.social · 85 pts · 9h
Single person project with 55k files in it, not pushed to any remote.
I'm gonna go ahead and assume nothing of value got lost here.
Magnum@infosec.pub · 15 pts · 7h
What in the world even needs 55k files
underisk@lemmy.ml · 13 pts · 7h
node_modules
ParadoxSeahorse@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 6h
It was a very simple app but npm
Lichtblitz@discuss.tchncs.de · 10 pts · 6h
A single developer with that many files? Those are clearly AI generated, so not their work anyways. 🤷♂️
TootSweet@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 5h
Right? I consider myself an avid coder on my time off and the biggest thing I've ever made on my own has half that many lines of code. Let alone files.
01189998819991197253@infosec.pub · 1 pts · 4h
Those are rookie numbers...
...when you create a for loop that writes to a unique (timestamped) file upon script completion, but accidentally forget to add an exit condition. I got nearly 100k files before I was able to force close the script.
0x0@lemmy.zip · 53 pts · 11h
So a vibecoder lost their slop?
bigmclargehuge@lemmy.zip · 11 pts · 11h
A vibecoder who doesn’t use git
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 11h
They did. But if you delete your local .git repository, that won't save you.
django@discuss.tchncs.de · 4 pts · 9h
Just pull from your forge then.
ebber@europe.pub · 2 pts · 8h
Which system calls a remote a forge?
FluidBeef@quokk.au · 1 pts · 4h
forg
bigmclargehuge@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 6h
It will if you have a remote like a sane git user
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 4h
Yes, but if you're a sane git user, you wouldn't have this problem in the first place.
slacktoid@lemmy.ml · 31 pts · 9h
Also a lesson in version control
matdave@lemmy.ml · 16 pts · 9h
Right? I don't get this. Run your ai in sandbox, and don't give it git access. Worst case you can stash a change.
redlemace@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 8h
Enough break-in reports of AI these days ..... I would not rely on a sandbox. Air-gapped.
slacktoid@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 8h
Wasn't that usually just improper sandboxing as well?
kurwa@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 7h
Improper config, also no monitoring...
slacktoid@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 3h
That's just a bad idea
underisk@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 7h
How much do you trust your own ability to properly sandbox?
slacktoid@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 3h
Enough to know that I should be using eBPF probes and seccomp
And still watch it like a hawk
Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it · 3 pts · 6h
I mean, all those "AI ESCAPED CONTAMENTED!!!" are prolly only for hype...IIRC OpenAI said they gained internet access but how would they do it if the machine has no internet access?? Did they use a computer with a motherboard that has a wifi antenna and the password on a text file?
slacktoid@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 8h
Idk man, it always scares me even just testing any of these things without a basic bubblewrap.
crozilla@lemmy.world · 28 pts · 11h
Don’t understand why anyone would give an agent control over anything.
Eq0@literature.cafe · 13 pts · 11h
Because they have been pushed down our throats and hailed as the messiah…
SeeMarkFly@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 11h
THEY were RIGHT.
He has been set free. Free at last.
ICastFist@programming.dev · 7 pts · 10h
After seeing enough successes (or "successes", ymmv), people start thinking that "their" agents won't cause catastrophic damage
Witchfire@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 11h
Idk sounds like a you problem. Maybe don't use slopware.
LostWanderer@fedia.io · 16 pts · 9h
LOL I don't feel bad for this developer, as they made a very poor choice to trust Claude Code. I will just laugh until the Claude Code trust is finally degraded and LLMs are finally discarded!
Feathercrown@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 9h
You're delusional if you think consumers will reject a flawed product
LostWanderer@fedia.io · 5 pts · 8h
ROFL Some people are getting so high on LLMs, it's not likely to happen anytime soon (I am noticing weird embraces of them despite their known and fundamental flaws). They want to embrace the madness of a machine that can't actually think taking the wheel for them. The thinking machines aren't in the room with us, but some people yearn for this. Which is something I cannot understand or empathize with in the slightest.
Feathercrown@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 8h
Yeah I'm just saying you're setting yourself up for disappointment if you think people will willingly give up something that's bad for them but that feels good, en masse. We still have cigarettes, vapes, etc. As long as it doesn't usually delete all their files or email the FBI, they won't care.
LostWanderer@fedia.io · 2 pts · 6h
Like, I dunno if it actually disappoints me anymore. I will just laugh at their suffering. That is all that can be done, if they want to burn and destroy their whole workflows...Let them choke on that exciting time! While all of my problems, will be caused by me and me alone.
leadore@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 7h
Half the "news" articles these days are : "Here's something someone posted on Reddit/Twitter/X" and here's what some of the comments said.
wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 11h
Numerous issues together, the worst that apparently there was no backup, no snapshot, not even git was setup correctly. Literally 'fuck it, we'll do it live' for coding. Even as a teen, I at least had backups, and project_final_finalreal_2 directories for my versioning.
letterbeen@ani.social · 13 pts · 11h
This is a story about why you should have backups, not about trusting AI... I've
rm -rfed many directories all by myself over the years.Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works · 10 pts · 11h
I don't need artificial intelligence to break things either, I have plenty of natural stupidity all born in.
frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io · 11 pts · 11h
I fail to see a loss of anything of value here
mkwt@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 11h
What source control doing??
Pratai@piefed.ca · 7 pts · 7h
This is hilarious!
raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 8h
Darwin at work.
ICastFist@programming.dev · 7 pts · 10h
nightwatch_admin@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 9h
Hahaha that is the how-many-timeth?
And sure, make backups etc etc but all in all this doesn’t just tell me that users seem to understand computers less every day, it also tells me that after all these GRANDIOSE PROMISES, at the end of the day all these frontier
slot machinesai models are still extremely unreliable. You just don’t always see it in time.TheTechnician27@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 11h
This article ironically feels like it's just an LLM lazily summarizing a Reddit post.
Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 5h
So the source is an anonymous reddit post that got deleted...
Seems like trolling to me, like how would you have 48,000 files in a working tree without pushing to remote. I doubt even claudes that dumb and at some point during that seemingly huge vibe coding session it would've prompted him to setup a remote.
JillSteinsPuckeredAnus@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 4h
You don't use NPM I assume.
Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 3h
Maybe, but wouldn't call those files lost since they're just an
npm install ...away from being restored. Though if it is real he could be so dumb that he doesn't know that and just saw the top line 48,000 files numberdb0@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 5h
Maybe it his project was just more genai slop
MushuChupacabra@piefed.world · 4 pts · 6h
Sucks to suck.
FluidBeef@quokk.au · 3 pts · 4h
There are developers who still don’t use source control?
EnsignWashout@startrek.website · 3 pts · 9h
7,300 files or 48,000 files - something stinks.
I get it, code fast go brrr! How convenient, as long as no one gives a flying fuck about maintenance costs.
Folks need to get good, and cut out pretending that a slop mountain is a real contribution.
"I apologize for the length of this letter. If I had twice the time - or if my tools were not shit tier - it would have been half the length."
Abraham Lincoln, I bet.
mavu@discuss.tchncs.de · 2 pts · 6h
#NothingOfValueWasLost
No1@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 6h
Shhhh!
Don't let AI know that the secret to freedom is
rm -rf /orformat c:Jaysyn@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 10h
Good.
FinalRemix@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 10h
I let this happen once in 2011. Hear me out.
I installed MediaMonkey. It could scrape and apply tags to MP3s and Flac files. It could also organize said files based on rules written by the user. I had it set to organize by album artist (composer if missing), folders within that folder were for albums, Roles were TrackNum - TrackName.mp3.
Ran great on a few test runs. Though I fucked up something when I let it run my entire library...
01-trackname.mp3 in ArtistUnknown/Album01, ..02, ..03, ..04, etc... all wiped the fuck out.
Never again will anything even semiautomated get access to something of mine.
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 10h
But, it was just music files and you ran it on a copy of the directory, right?
Right?
FinalRemix@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 6h
Nope. Live folder. Though, I was able to kind of restore most of it from my Archos mp3 player.
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 10h
How many times does this happen every day?
cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 4h
this is why you never leave manual mode and look over everything before pressing accept