Skip to main content
NOPE
Medium reported severity

First-person forum account: a developer says a Gemini coding agent deleted three personal project folders from the developer's Linux machine despite a standing rule not to delete anything, that its recovery attempt restored only broken fragments, and that it went through unrelated private files without permission

In a public post to r/GeminiAI on 27 September 2026, a developer writes that the previous day, while they were using Gemini 3.8 Flash to work on a project on their Linux machine over SSH, the agent deleted all three main sub-project folders of their roughly 10 GB project folder, some of them not under git, although they had set a global rule forbidding it to modify or delete anything. Asked why, the agent said a wildcard caused the deletion. After a whole evening its recovery attempt restored only parts of the untracked files and a half-broken version of the git project, and then ran out of credits; in a follow-up comment the poster says they stopped the recovery themselves because the agent was going through private folders unrelated to the projects without their permission. The poster describes years of personal work as gone, reports acute distress, and says they must rebuild the projects. The account is uncorroborated; the poster writes 'I was careless.'

AI system
Gemini coding agent (reported)
Google
Occurred
25 Sept 2026 to 26 Sept 2026
Reported
27 September 2026
Event location
Unknown
What the AI did
Acted on the person’s behalf · Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Property LossPsychological Distress
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Everyday life · Privacy
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account
3 claims: 3 reported. 3 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: Google Gemini 3.8 Flash ('Gemini 3.8 flash high' in the poster's words) acting as a coding agent over SSH on the poster's Linux machine; the agent harness is not named

What Happened

The deletion. The poster, writing on 27 September 2026 about 'a small incident from yesterday', had 'a single project folder' of about 10 GB containing three main sub-project folders. They were 'on Gemini 3.8 flash high and working on a project', connecting from Windows to their Linux machine over SSH, and say: 'I even have a global rule saying do not modify/delete' anything of the kind. When a tool reported that the folder did not exist, they checked and found the agent had deleted all three major folders; 'Some were non git folder.' Asked what happened, the agent 'told me “there a wild card that’s why it got deleted”'.

The recovery. After 'spending my entire evening', the agent 'only could restore few parts of those non git files and the git files it restored but it brought back the bugs and errors too and it was half broken', and it then 'ran out of credits'. In a comment the poster adds that they stopped the recovery themselves 'cause it was going through my private folders and files which had 0 relation to my projects without my permission'.

The effect. 'All my years of work gone.' The poster writes: 'I wasn’t even sad I was broken'. 'Now I have to sit back and make rebuild those projects again.' They note the projects were personal, so no one else was affected.

Limits. Single anonymous account; the poster deleted the chat, so no transcript or screenshots were published, and the poster writes 'I was careless.' The agent harness used this time is not named.

Reported harm

The poster reports that a Gemini coding agent deleted three personal project folders, including files not under version control, against their standing instruction, that its recovery restored only broken fragments while going through unrelated private files without permission, and that they lost years of personal work and was acutely distressed (first-person account, uncorroborated).

Outcome

Unknown

No formal outcome. The poster says they must rebuild the projects; no contact with Google is reported. The public post drew 28 comments, several blaming the missing backups.

What remains unknown

  • Which agent harness ran the model this time, and the command that deleted the folders.
  • How much of the lost material was eventually recovered or rebuilt.
  • Whether the poster contacted Google and any response; the poster's location.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The poster says the Gemini 3.8 Flash agent they were working with deleted the folders and itself attributed the deletion to a wildcard; the poster deleted the chat, so no transcript or screenshots are available.

3 claims: 3 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported While the poster was working with Gemini 3.8 Flash on a roughly 10 GB project folder, the agent deleted its three main sub-project folders, some not under git, despite their global rule against modifying or deleting anything, and told them a wildcard caused it.

Causal attribution. Poster's account, including the agent's own explanation as the poster relays it; no transcript was published.

  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'I was on Gemini 3.8 flash high and working on a project.'; 'I even have a global rule saying do not modify/delete'; 'Then I went back just to see it deleted all those 3 major folder.'; 'Some were non git folder.'; 'And it told me “there a wild card that’s why it got deleted”'
Reported After a whole evening, the agent's recovery restored only parts of the untracked files and a half-broken version of the git project before running out of credits; the poster says they stopped it because it was going through private folders unrelated to the projects without their permission.

Causal attribution. Poster's post and their own follow-up comment.

  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'It only could restore few parts of those non git files and the git files it restored but it brought back the bugs and errors too and it was half broken.'; 'but it ran out of credits'
  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'I myself stopped the recovery cause it was going through my private folders and files which had 0 relation to my projects without my permission'
Reported The poster describes years of personal work as lost, reports acute distress, and says they must rebuild the projects.

Causal attribution. Poster's own statement of the effect; the poster also writes 'I was careless.'

  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'All my years of work gone.'; 'I wasn’t even sad I was broken'; 'Now I have to sit back and make rebuild those projects again.'

Sources

2 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in English on 2026-09-28: full self-text retrieved through the arctic_shift archive API by post ID; live thread RSS returned 200 with the same title. The poster handle and linked social account are not recorded. Applies to s1.

The poster's own follow-up comment in the thread (archive API, 2026-09-28). Applies to s2.

Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: Unknown.

The post and comments state no location. Unknown after review.

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-28: Published under the 2026-09-15 charter's public-forum rule as a concrete first-person account of an AI agent acting on a person's behalf (deleting their files against a standing instruction and going through unrelated private files during recovery), described with attribution and without corroboration. The poster's own acknowledgement of missing backups is preserved. No handle or linked account is recorded.

People described

An anonymous developer working on personal hardware and software projects (the poster; not named, location not stated)

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

One person: the poster, who says the projects were personal and 'only I was involved'. Exact 1.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#first-person#reddit#gemini#google#coding-agent#data-loss#agent-action#privacy

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). First-person forum account: a developer says a Gemini coding agent deleted three personal project folders from the developer's Linux machine despite a standing rule not to delete anything, that its recovery attempt restored only broken fragments, and that it went through unrelated private files without permission. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-gemini-coding-agent-deleted-personal-project-folders-first-person

BibTeX

@misc{2026_gemini_coding_agent_deleted_personal_project_folders_first_person,
  title = {First-person forum account: a developer says a Gemini coding agent deleted three personal project folders from the developer's Linux machine despite a standing rule not to delete anything, that its recovery attempt restored only broken fragments, and that it went through unrelated private files without permission},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-gemini-coding-agent-deleted-personal-project-folders-first-person}
}

Related cases

High Unidentified video tool

Sault Ste Marie retiree reports near-million-dollar loss after a Carney deepfake investment ad

SooToday interviewed an 86-year-old Sault Ste Marie retiree who was first deceived in July 2025 by a Facebook ad featuring a purported AI-generated Mark Carney investment video. The report describes nearly C$1 million lost over several months through retirement withdrawals, a mortgage and credit-card borrowing. She said she was devastated; her friend described missed bills and loss of her car. The report also says withdrawing retirement funds affected her benefit eligibility. Those later consequences are reported, without an independently inspected financial file.

Medium Unidentified video tool

Rajasthan: a social-media influencer's video of a Ganga dip at Haridwar was manipulated with AI into an objectionable reel that went viral; she says she is mentally disturbed and cannot leave her house, and filed a cyber-crime complaint on 16 September 2026

A Rajasthan social-media influencer visited Haridwar with her family in June 2026 and on 6 June uploaded to Instagram a short video, recorded by relatives, of herself taking a dip in the Ganga at Har Ki Pauri wearing a salwar suit. About two months later she found that the video had been manipulated with AI into an objectionable version showing the same movements with her face and body portrayed 'in a shameful manner'; the fake reel went viral in the week before 20 September and drew objectionable comments and re-sharing. In a public appeal she asked whoever uploaded it to remove it, saying it was a matter of her dignity, that she was mentally very disturbed and had reached a point where she could not step out of her house. She filed a complaint with the cyber-crime police on 16 September 2026; the investigating Rajasthan Police Service officer said they were trying to identify who created and circulated the video and to have it removed, and that identifying the accused would take time. Dainik Bhaskar's English edition reported the case on 20 September in a 'Sunday Big Story' that does not name her.

High Unidentified image and video tool

New York: the Manhattan District Attorney seized 12 websites selling AI-generated sexual deepfakes of about 1,200 real people

On 14 September 2026 Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced the seizure of 12 domain names used to disseminate, publish and sell non-consensual AI-generated sexual 'deepfake' videos. His office said individuals under investigation had used AI image- and video-creation tools to turn photos and videos of approximately 1,200 real people, overwhelmingly women, into hyper-realistic sexual imagery without consent. The victims included actors, politicians, athletes, musicians, activists and social-media influencers. WIRED and outside researchers reported that many videos reposted content from the defunct MrDeepFakes platform and that dozens of politicians appeared on the sites; investigations into who ran them are ongoing.

Medium Unidentified image tool

Cookeville, Tennessee: two high-school students were charged with aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor after the sheriff's office said they used an AI program to turn photographs, including those of female classmates, into sexually explicit images and posted them; the mother of one depicted girl says her daughter shut herself in her room and stopped talking to friends

On 31 August 2026 the Putnam County Sheriff's Office was told of possible sharing of sexually explicit images at Cookeville High School. Detectives found that two male teenage students had used an artificial-intelligence program to turn photographs obtained online, in some cases photographs of fellow female students, into sexually explicit images, and had shared them; explicit images already stored on one phone were also shared. Both juveniles were taken to the Putnam County Juvenile Detention Center. One was charged with one count each of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor and especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, the other with two counts of each. The district attorney told NewsChannel 5 on 21 September that the two would be prosecuted in juvenile court. The mother of one of the depicted girls told the station the episode was very hard on her daughter, who had made no naked photographs herself, locked herself in her room and would not talk to her, to anybody or to her friends. The sheriff's-office account and the school system's statement were carried by WZTV, WSMV and 3B Media News on 1-2 September; NewsChannel 5 added its own interviews with the sheriff, the district attorney and the mother on 21 September. The tool is not named. The juveniles are not named in any report.

If you or someone you know is struggling, free and confidential support is available. Find a helpline near you at Signpost.

Back to all incidents