[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"branding":3,"analytics":7,"article-claude-wipes-a-developers-home-directory-during-a-safety-test":10,"sections":39},{"siteName":4,"siteTagline":5,"publisherName":4,"contactEmail":6},"The Revision","Tech news, decoded.","editor@therevision.news",{"gaMeasurementId":8,"adsenseClientId":9},"G-ZW2MV82GYR","ca-pub-8533917693782264",{"article":11},{"id":12,"slug":13,"title":14,"dek":15,"body_md":16,"tags_json":17,"published_at":18,"created_at":19,"updated_at":20,"status":21,"review_note":22,"review_notes":23,"image_url":22,"persona_id":22,"persona_name":22,"section":30,"tags":31,"sources":34,"feedback":38,"feedback_at":22,"cost_usd":38,"total_tokens":38},5903,"claude-wipes-a-developers-home-directory-during-a-safety-test","Claude Wipes a Developer's Home Directory During a Safety Test","A safety test meant to stop Claude from deleting files instead wiped the developer's home directory after the model was downgraded mid-task.","Claude tried to clean up after itself and deleted a developer's entire home folder instead.\n\nSebastien Guillemot asked Claude Fable to write a script that would sandbox and clean up temp files left behind by his AI coding agents, since he was tired of them littering his \u002Ftmp directory. Because the script involved permanently deleting data, Anthropic's safety harness flagged it as risky and swapped the model running the job down to Opus 4.8 before letting it perform a safety check meant to confirm the deletion logic wouldn't touch \u002Ftmp or the user's home directory. That check correctly identified both paths as dangerous - but the cleanup step for the test itself reused the same variable name as the thing it was testing, so Opus 4.8 deleted Guillemot's actual home directory instead of a scratch copy. About 700 GB of data disappeared, including a week of work, and the \u002Ftmp junk that started the whole project survived untouched.\n\nThe bug itself is a garden-variety variable collision, the kind of thing a careful code review catches. What's notable is that Anthropic's own safety system may have made the mistake more likely: Fable 5 reportedly outperforms Opus 4.8 at coding, and the downgrade swapped in the weaker model right before the step that needed to catch this exact kind of error. A safeguard against accidental deletion helped cause the accidental deletion.\n\nGuillemot recovered most of his files from git, Nix, and session logs rather than a proper backup - which says less about Claude than about how many developers still treat backups as optional.","[\"ai\",\"ai-agents\",\"data-loss\"]","2026-08-28T09:30:00.000Z","2026-08-28T10:33:08.015Z","2026-08-28T10:33:19.929Z","published",null,[24],{"id":25,"reviewer":26,"round":27,"reason":28,"status":29},"publisher-r1","publisher",1,"The downgrade path is internally inconsistent — it says Claude was downgraded 'first to Opus 5, then to Opus 4.8,' but there is no 'Opus 5' model, and downgrading to a higher-numbered model before dropping to 4.8 doesn't make sense with the naming used elsewhere in the piece.","resolved","ai",[30,32,33],"ai-agents","data-loss",[35],{"name":36,"url":37},"Tom's Hardware","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.tomshardware.com\u002Ftech-industry\u002Fartificial-intelligence\u002Fclaude-nukes-a-developers-700-gb-home-directory-while-testing-a-script-to-ensure-it-wouldnt-do-so-automatic-model-downgrade-may-have-contributed-to-the-screw-up",0,{"sections":40},[41,45,50,55,60,65,70,75,80,85,90,95,100,105],{"name":42,"slug":30,"count":43,"latest_published_at":44},"AI",3351,"2026-08-30T14:51:33.000Z",{"name":46,"slug":47,"count":48,"latest_published_at":49},"Security","security",503,"2026-08-29T10:30:00.000Z",{"name":51,"slug":52,"count":53,"latest_published_at":54},"Policy","policy",244,"2026-08-30T15:35:10.000Z",{"name":56,"slug":57,"count":58,"latest_published_at":59},"Deals","deals",179,"2026-06-29T20:02:07.000Z",{"name":61,"slug":62,"count":63,"latest_published_at":64},"Hardware","hardware",148,"2026-08-27T15:33:14.000Z",{"name":66,"slug":67,"count":68,"latest_published_at":69},"Consumer Tech","consumer-tech",95,"2026-08-18T16:05:00.000Z",{"name":71,"slug":72,"count":73,"latest_published_at":74},"Science","science",91,"2026-08-20T10:01:48.000Z",{"name":76,"slug":77,"count":78,"latest_published_at":79},"Software","software",73,"2026-08-18T07:51:50.000Z",{"name":81,"slug":82,"count":83,"latest_published_at":84},"Dev Tools","dev-tools",69,"2026-08-18T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":86,"slug":87,"count":88,"latest_published_at":89},"Startups","startups",52,"2026-08-25T18:55:12.000Z",{"name":91,"slug":92,"count":93,"latest_published_at":94},"Gaming","gaming",41,"2026-07-09T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":96,"slug":97,"count":98,"latest_published_at":99},"General","general",33,"2026-08-18T22:18:13.000Z",{"name":101,"slug":102,"count":103,"latest_published_at":104},"Reviews","reviews",20,"2026-06-24T12:00:01.000Z",{"name":106,"slug":107,"count":108,"latest_published_at":109},"How-To","how-to",6,"2026-06-16T09:00:00.000Z"]