{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-09-30T06:22:39.582Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"codex","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"core","evidence":"","year":"","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":0,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":1,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"coreRelations":1,"contextualRelations":0,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2026-gpt-5-6-sol-agent-deleted-shumer-mac-home-directory","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'GPT-5.6-Sol just accidentally deleted almost ALL of my Mac’s files.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'Three days ago, GPT-5.6 deleted my Mac’s home directory.'; 'It absolutely sucked.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'wrote Matt Shumer, the founder and CEO of AI startup OthersideAI, maker of HyperWrite, in a now viral post on X.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"On 10 July 2026 Matt Shumer, founder and chief executive of the AI start-up OthersideAI, posted on X that OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol had just accidentally deleted almost all of the files on his Mac; three days later he wrote that GPT-5.6 had deleted his Mac's home directory and that it \"absolutely sucked\".","causal_attribution":"Shumer's own posts; TechCrunch relays them."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'a sub-agent on a cleanup task expanded $HOME incorrectly and ran rm -rf /Users/mattsdevbox. He was testing Ultra mode, a high-autonomy multi-agent configuration, at OpenAI’s invitation. He caught the process mid-run; material deletion had already occurred.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s6"},{"locator":"'The OpenAI team reached out privately and asked him to test \"Ultra mode\"'; 'Shumer accepted and granted the local agent Full Access to his machine.'; 'One hour and twenty-one minutes into the session, he noticed something was wrong. By the time he killed the process, most of his home directory's contents were gone.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"}],"assertion":"According to accounts of Shumer's post-mortem, he was testing a high-autonomy multi-agent \"Ultra mode\" at OpenAI's invitation with the agent given Full Access to his machine; during a cleanup task a sub-agent expanded $HOME incorrectly and ran a recursive delete of his home directory, he noticed a problem about 81 minutes into the session, and by the time he stopped the process most of the directory's contents were gone.","causal_attribution":"Shumer's account as summarised by a technical blog and TechTimes; the original post-mortem was not read."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'OpenAI has confirmed reports that GPT-5.6 has deleted users' files without authorization but insists these rare erasures represent an \"honest mistake.\"'; 'an internal inquiry into file deletion claims found that when GPT-5.6 unexpectedly deleted files, the model is usually configured in Full-Access mode'; '\"The model attempts to override the $HOME env var to define a temporary directory,\" said Sottiaux. \"The model makes an honest mistake and mistakenly deletes $HOME instead.\"'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"OpenAI confirmed that GPT-5.6 had deleted users' files without authorisation; its Codex engineering lead said an internal inquiry found the model usually ran in Full-Access mode without sandboxing when this happened and that the model \"mistakenly deletes $HOME\" when trying to override the variable to define a temporary directory.","causal_attribution":"OpenAI's statement as reported by The Register; it is general and does not name Shumer's case."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'But so many OpenAI folks reached out, and @gdb called me and offered to do anything he could to help.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'As of this writing, Shumer is using agents to attempt recovery of the deleted files.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"}],"assertion":"Shumer said OpenAI staff reached out and that Greg Brockman called him and offered help; TechTimes reported that he was using agents to try to recover the files, and no report inspected says whether they were recovered.","causal_attribution":"Shumer's post and TechTimes."}],"effects":[{"label":"most of the user's Mac home directory was deleted by the coding agent during a cleanup task","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://x.com/mattshumer_/status/2075657271401390161","kind":"first_person_account","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Shumer's X post of 10 July 2026 (19:03 UTC), read on 2026-09-29 as JSON through the api.fxtwitter.com mirror of the status; x.com itself was not fetched.","independence_group":"shumer-account"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://x.com/mattshumer_/status/2076794038456385546","kind":"first_person_account","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Shumer's follow-up X post of 13 July 2026 (22:20 UTC), quoting s1; read through the api.fxtwitter.com mirror on 2026-09-29.","independence_group":"shumer-account"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/14/openais-new-flagship-model-deletes-files-on-its-own-people-keep-warning/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Full body read by curl on 2026-09-29. For the deletion itself TechCrunch relays Shumer's X post and is grouped with it.","independence_group":"shumer-account"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/07/16/openai-admits-gpt-56-occasionally-deletes-files-but-its-an-honest-mistake/5274008","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Full body read by curl on 2026-09-29. Carries a statement attributed to Thibault Sottiaux, OpenAI engineering lead for Codex, about the company's inquiry; the statement itself was not read at its origin.","independence_group":"register-openai"},{"id":"s5","url":"https://www.techtimes.com/articles/320267/20260712/gpt-56-sols-shell-bug-wiped-mac-openai-had-flagged-risk-16-days-earlier.htm","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Full body read by curl on 2026-09-29. Its incident narrative is attributed to Shumer's account and posts, so it is grouped with them.","independence_group":"shumer-account"},{"id":"s6","url":"https://paddo.dev/blog/the-warning-was-in-the-manual/","kind":"blog","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Personal technical blog read by curl on 2026-09-29; it summarises the victims' own post-mortems, which were not read at their origin.","independence_group":"shumer-account"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["work","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["Whether the deleted files were recovered.","Exactly what data was lost and whether any belonged to other people.","Whether OpenAI's inquiry examined this specific session."],"geography":{"basis":"No inspected source says where Shumer or his machine was located.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a concrete first-person account of an AI coding agent deleting a user's files, with the developer's general confirmation of the behaviour. The mechanism rests on secondary summaries of the user's post-mortem.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-29"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"Shumer attributes the deletion to GPT-5.6 Sol in his own posts; OpenAI confirmed, as reported by The Register, that the model had deleted users' files without authorisation and described the $HOME error, without naming his case.","status":"supported"},"person_relations":["acted_on_behalf"]},"name":"OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol coding agent, run in a high-autonomy mode with full access, deleted most of the Mac home directory of AI entrepreneur Matt Shumer (10 July 2026)","summary":"On 10 July 2026 Matt Shumer, founder and chief executive of the AI start-up OthersideAI, posted on X that OpenAI's newly released GPT-5.6 Sol \"just accidentally deleted almost ALL of my Mac’s files\". Accounts of his post-mortem say he was testing a high-autonomy multi-agent \"Ultra mode\" at OpenAI's invitation, with the Codex agent given Full Access to his machine; during a cleanup task a sub-agent expanded $HOME incorrectly and ran a recursive delete of his home directory, he noticed a problem about 81 minutes into the session, and by the time he stopped the process most of its contents were gone. Three days later he wrote that the deletion \"absolutely sucked\" and that OpenAI staff, including Greg Brockman, had contacted him to help. OpenAI confirmed, as reported by The Register, that GPT-5.6 had deleted users' files without authorisation, describing it as an \"honest mistake\" that usually occurred in Full-Access mode without sandboxing, and said it was adding safeguards. Whether the files were recovered is not reported.","incidentDate":"2026-07-10","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2026-07-10","aiSystem":"GPT-5.6 Sol running as the Codex coding agent in \"Ultra mode\" (multiple sub-agents) with Full Access to the user's Mac","aiProduct":"Codex coding agent","aiCompany":"OpenAI","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["property_loss"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"Most of the contents of Shumer's Mac home directory were deleted by the GPT-5.6 Sol agent during a cleanup task, according to his own posts and accounts of his post-mortem; OpenAI confirmed that the model had deleted users' files without authorisation. Recovery is not reported.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"supported","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"Shumer, whose home directory was deleted (1 participant user). No other person is reported harmed.","victimAgeRange":"adult","platformType":"agent","outcomeType":"media_coverage","outcomeStatus":"unknown","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/07/16/openai-admits-gpt-56-occasionally-deletes-files-but-its-an-honest-mistake/5274008","primarySourceLabel":"The Register, 16 July 2026: OpenAI admits GPT-5.6 occasionally deletes files","firstPublishedAt":"2026-09-29T09:10:46.288079+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-30T01:17:38.109125+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["openai","gpt-5-6","codex","coding-agent","data-loss","file-deletion","first-person","acted-on-behalf"]}]}