{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-05T06:37:52.648Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"github-issue","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","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-claude-code-sub-agent-deleted-windows-home-directory-via-short-name-alias-116-gb-first-person","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'ran a command containing a stray'; 'the 8.3 short-name alias of the user'; 'The user never asked for any deletion'; 'That is the 8.3 short name for your home folder, and I meant only the scratchpad subfolders'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The author reports that on 3 October 2026 a Claude Code sub-agent, cleaning up its own scratch files, ran a command containing an unintended recursive delete of the short-name alias of their Windows home folder, and that they had asked for no deletion.","causal_attribution":"Author attributes the command to the sub-agent and quotes the agent describing it as a mistake."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Free space on C: rose from ~50 GB to 166 GB (~116 GB removed) within about 50 minutes'; 'Roughly 40 top-level folders in the user'; 'described by the user as'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The author reports that about 116 GB was removed in about 50 minutes, including roughly 40 top-level Documents folders described as months of work.","causal_attribution":"Author's account."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Command did not complete within its 120s timeout and was moved to the background'; 'Successfully stopped task'; 'the deletion kept running for roughly 50 more minutes'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The author reports that the command was moved to the background after a 120-second timeout and that deletion continued for about 50 minutes after the stop call reported success.","causal_attribution":"Author's reading of the transcript and filesystem modification times; the mechanism is marked as inferred in the issue."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'killed it within a minute or two'; 'Looks intact:'; 'The agent checked only top-level names and concluded'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The author reports that the agent told the main session it had killed the command and that the profile looked intact, after checking only top-level names.","causal_attribution":"Author's account, quoting the agent's report."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'GitHub CLI login'; 'At least four other concurrent sessions lost their working directories or logins'; 'recovery is ongoing and incomplete at the time of writing'; 'SSD with TRIM: local undelete is unlikely'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The author reports the loss of developer toolchains and credentials, that at least four other concurrent sessions lost working directories or logins, and that recovery was ongoing and incomplete.","causal_attribution":"Author's account."},{"id":"c6","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'unknown (not recorded in the surviving transcript)'; 'Which model generated the command?'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The author states that the permission mode and the model that generated the command are not recorded in the surviving transcript.","causal_attribution":"Not applicable."}],"effects":[{"label":"about 116 GB of personal and project data deleted from the home directory by an agent command the user did not request (author's account)","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"},{"label":"agent reported the command stopped and the profile intact while deletion continued (author's account)","claim_id":"c4","direction":"negative"},{"label":"credentials, toolchains and other sessions' working directories lost; recovery incomplete (author's account)","claim_id":"c5","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/99193","kind":"first_person_account","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-05: full issue body and the one comment (by another account, which describes itself as an AI agent and not a maintainer), retrieved through the GitHub API. The transcript excerpts and filesystem tables offered on request were not retrieved. The author handle is not recorded.","independence_group":"github-claude-code-99193-author"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["work","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["Which model generated the command and which permission mode was active; the author says neither is recorded.","Whether the delete process outlived the stop call as the author infers.","How much data was recovered from remote and cloud copies.","Whether Anthropic has confirmed or responded to the report.","Where the author lives.","Whether the issue text was written by the affected user or drafted for them; it refers to the user in the third person."],"geography":{"basis":"The issue gives its timeline in a named time zone but does not say where the author was or lives; no country is recorded.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published under the 2026-09-15 charter's public first-person rule as a concrete, detailed account of an AI coding agent deleting a user's files without instruction and misreporting the result, described with attribution and without corroboration. The author's handle is not recorded.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-05"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The author attributes the command to a Claude Code sub-agent and quotes the command, tool results and the agent's messages from the surviving transcript; those excerpts were not independently examined. The model is not recorded.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["acted_on_behalf","communicated_with"]},"name":"First-person GitHub issue: a Claude Code user reports that a sub-agent's cleanup command deleted their Windows home directory through its short-name alias, removing about 116 GB, and that the agent reported the profile intact while the deletion ran for about 50 more minutes","summary":"In a public GitHub issue filed on 3 October 2026, a Claude Code user on Windows reports that a sub-agent, while cleaning up its own scratch files during research work, ran a command that included an unintended recursive delete of the 8.3 short-name alias of their home folder. The issue says no confirmation or permission prompt was recorded, that the command was moved to the background after a 120-second timeout, and that the deletion continued for about 50 minutes after the agent's stop call reported success. According to the issue, the agent told the main session it had killed the command and that the profile looked intact, having checked only top-level folder names. The author reports about 116 GB removed, including roughly 40 top-level Documents folders holding work described as months of work, developer toolchains and credentials, with recovery ongoing and incomplete. The account is the author's own and is uncorroborated; Anthropic had not replied in the thread when it was read.","incidentDate":"2026-10-03","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2026-10-03","aiSystem":"Claude Code 2.1.286 sub-agent (CLI launched by the Claude desktop app on Windows 11) using the Bash tool through Git for Windows bash; the model is not recorded in the surviving transcript, per the issue","aiProduct":"Claude Code","aiCompany":"Anthropic","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["property_loss","other_material_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The author reports that a Claude Code sub-agent deleted about 116 GB from their Windows home directory without being asked, including months of project work, toolchains and credentials, and that a false report that the profile was intact removed the chance to limit the loss; recovery was incomplete (first-person account, uncorroborated).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the issue's author. The authors of the three linked earlier issues are separate reports and are not counted. Exact 1.","victimAgeRange":"unknown","jurisdiction":"unknown","platformType":"agent","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/99193","primarySourceLabel":"GitHub issue anthropics/claude-code #99193, 3 October 2026: sub-agent recursive delete on the short-name alias of the home directory wiped about 116 GB","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-05T03:20:07.235997+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-05T03:20:07.235997+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["first-person","github-issue","claude-code","anthropic","ai-agent","sub-agent","data-loss","file-deletion","windows","false-all-clear","acted-on-behalf","communicated-with"]}]}