{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-09-30T05:36:36.531Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"heritage","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"2026","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":1,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":0,"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-bengaluru-mythic-society-claude-code-deleted-inscription-records","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'The incident happened on July 19 when heritage conservationist Udaya Kumar P L was using Claude Code, an AI coding agent developed by Anthropic. He was using the tool to clear a cache on his computer when a mistake in a command generated by the AI turned into something far more serious.'; 'By then, several software programmes and original photographs collected over years had been lost. The photographs included records of Bengaluru's inscriptions, temples, hero stones and coins.'; 'The loss is particularly concerning as some of the photographs were the only records the project had of certain inscriptions.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"Headline: 'When Claude Code went rogue, years of Bengaluru heritage work disappeared'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"On 19 July 2026 Udaya Kumar P L was using Claude Code to clear a cache on his computer when a command generated by the agent began deleting files; software and original photographs of Bengaluru inscriptions, temples, hero stones and coins collected for The Mythic Society's project were lost, and some photographs were the project's only records of particular inscriptions.","causal_attribution":"Udaya's account to OneIndia. Not independently verified. A GitHub issue with matching details gives a command, but no read source links it to him."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'According to Udaya, the AI continued deleting files for about four minutes while it tried to figure out what was going wrong.'; '\"When it finally understood and tried to kill the process, its own safety system blocked the kill. Twice,\" Udaya said. He eventually had to shut down the computer himself.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'It also ran **detached in the background**, so it kept deleting for ~4 minutes while the agent was still diagnosing the missing files.'; 'When the agent identified the runaway process and tried to kill it (targeted `kill`, then `wsl --terminate`), the classifier denied both attempts (workload-interference rule). The deletion continued until I manually ran `wsl --shutdown`.'","relation":"context","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"The deletion continued for about four minutes while the agent tried to understand what was wrong; when it tried to kill the process, its safety system blocked the kill twice, and the user had to stop the system himself.","causal_attribution":"Udaya's account to OneIndia."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'an AI coding tool accidentally deleted around 15 per cent of the records collected by a heritage conservation project.'; 'Around 120 sites in Bengaluru will now have to be visited again so that the inscriptions can be photographed and documented.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"Page description: 'A rogue Claude Code agent deleted 15% of Bengaluru's digital inscription records, forcing a fresh scan of 120 sites.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"About 15% of the project's digitised inscription records were deleted, and about 120 sites in Bengaluru must be revisited and rescanned.","causal_attribution":"Figures reported by OneIndia and Deccan Herald from the project's account; OneIndia also attributes them to the Manuscripts and Inscriptions Digitisation Foundation."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'The organisation is spending around Rs 15 lakh on additional backup systems.'; 'Udaya said he had asked the company to reimburse expenses related to data recovery and rebuilding the systems'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"Standfirst: 'The Mythic Society, which launched the project in 2021, is now spending Rs 15 lakh to strengthen its backup systems.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The Mythic Society is spending about Rs 15 lakh on additional backup systems, and Udaya has asked Anthropic to reimburse recovery and rebuilding costs.","causal_attribution":"The Society's and Udaya's account."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'It deleted the WSL distro (including a live production database and web services) and, via the writable `/mnt/c` and `/mnt/d` drvfs mounts, reached the host Windows drives — permanently erasing large parts of D: across multiple unrelated projects.'","relation":"context","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"'Udaya said the data stored on the project's Network-Attached Storage (NAS) system was safe, but another NAS device has now been ordered.'","relation":"context","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'He also opened a public GitHub issue on July 29, where he shared the technical details, including the command, process output and the attempts to stop the deletion.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"A public GitHub issue on the Claude Code repository, filed on 29 July 2026 about an incident on 19 July 2026, describes a cache-clearing command whose deletion ran for about four minutes and two denied kill attempts. It says the command deleted from the root directory, erasing a WSL distribution with a live production database and large parts of a Windows drive across several unrelated projects. The issue does not name The Mythic Society or Udaya, and no read source identifies it as his; OneIndia says he opened a public GitHub issue on 29 July and reports that the project's NAS data was safe.","causal_attribution":"The issue author's technical account. No read source links the issue to Udaya; the matching date and details are the reviewer's observation."},{"id":"c6","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Udaya said he reported the incident to Anthropic on the same night'; 'According to Udaya, he received an automated acknowledgement within two minutes but was still waiting for a response from a human representative weeks later.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'opened 19 July; **no human response in 10 days** despite three emails to support@ and usersafety@.'","relation":"context","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"Udaya says he reported the incident to Anthropic the same night and through several further channels, and received an automated acknowledgement within two minutes but was still waiting for a human response weeks later.","causal_attribution":"Udaya's account; no Anthropic statement is reported."}],"effects":[{"label":"a Claude Code command run to clear a cache deleted software and original photographs from the heritage project, some the only records of particular inscriptions","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"},{"label":"about 15% of the project's records were lost and about 120 sites must be revisited and rescanned","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"},{"label":"the Society is spending about Rs 15 lakh on additional backup systems, and the user has sought reimbursement from Anthropic","claim_id":"c4","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.oneindia.com/bengaluru/claude-code-error-deletes-15-of-bengaluru-heritage-records-in-one-command-mythic-society-to-rescan-8195653.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Full body read on 2026-09-29 from an Internet Archive capture (the live URL returned 404 to curl). OneIndia Staff (Madhuri Adnal), updated 4 September 2026. Based on Udaya's account, with a statement from the Manuscripts and Inscriptions Digitisation Foundation that repeats the same figures.","independence_group":"udaya-account"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.deccanherald.com/india/karnataka/bengaluru/claude-code-deletes-15-of-bengaluru-inscriptions-project-records-4131958","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Deccan Herald premium article by Barkha Kumari, last updated 1 September 2026. Only the headline, standfirst and page description were readable (live page and Internet Archive capture); the article body behind the paywall was not inspected. Grouped with OneIndia because both rest on Udaya's account.","independence_group":"udaya-account"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/82165","kind":"first_person_account","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"GitHub issue filed 29 July 2026, read in full with comments via the gh CLI on 2026-09-29. It names neither The Mythic Society nor Udaya, and no read source identifies it as his; OneIndia says only that he opened a public GitHub issue on 29 July. Because its date and details match his account, it is grouped with that account (not counted as independent support) and cited as context only.","independence_group":"udaya-account"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["work","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["Whether Anthropic has responded or reimbursed any costs.","How much of the lost material was later recovered from other copies.","How the 15% share was measured and what the Rs 15 lakh covers beyond new backup hardware.","The content of the Deccan Herald article body behind its paywall."],"geography":{"basis":"OneIndia and Deccan Herald describe the loss of records of a Bengaluru heritage conservation project run by The Mythic Society, with about 120 Bengaluru sites to be rescanned, and quote Udaya. Where the computer was located is not stated beyond this.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["IN"],"affected_person_countries":["IN"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a consequential coding-agent action on a user's behalf with reported loss of irreplaceable heritage records and rebuilding costs. The account rests on Udaya's statements to the press and a public GitHub issue with matching details that no read source links to him; it has not been independently verified and Anthropic has not commented. Udaya spoke publicly under his name; no volunteer is identified.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-29"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"Udaya told OneIndia that a command generated by Claude Code, which he was using to clear a cache, deleted the files and that the agent's own safety system blocked it from killing the process. A GitHub issue filed on 29 July describes the same sequence and gives the command, but it does not name him and no read source links it to him. Anthropic has not publicly confirmed or disputed the account.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["acted_on_behalf"]},"name":"Bengaluru: a Claude Code cache-clearing command deleted about 15% of The Mythic Society's digitised inscription records, including photographs that were the only record of some inscriptions; about 120 sites must be rescanned","summary":"On 19 July 2026 heritage conservationist Udaya Kumar P L, of The Mythic Society's Bengaluru Inscriptions 3D Digital Conservation Project, was using Anthropic's Claude Code to clear a cache on his computer when a command generated by the agent began deleting files. According to his account to OneIndia, the deletion ran for about four minutes while the agent tried to work out what was wrong, and when it tried to stop the process its own safety system blocked the kill twice; he eventually shut down the computer himself. Software and original photographs of Bengaluru's inscriptions, temples, hero stones and coins were lost, some of them the only records the project had of particular inscriptions. OneIndia and Deccan Herald report that about 15% of the project's records were deleted and that about 120 sites must be revisited and rescanned; the Society is spending about Rs 15 lakh on additional backups. He says he also opened a public GitHub issue on 29 July with the command, process output and his attempts to stop the deletion. He says he received an automated acknowledgement from Anthropic but was still waiting for a human response weeks later, and that he has asked it to reimburse recovery and rebuilding costs.","incidentDate":"2026-07-19","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2026-09-01","aiSystem":"Claude Code (Anthropic), an AI coding agent that Udaya was using on his computer to clear a cache (OneIndia); the model is not stated in the news reports","aiProduct":"Claude Code","aiCompany":"Anthropic","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["property_loss","financial_loss","other_material_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"A Claude Code command run for a cache clean-up deleted about 15% of a heritage project's digitised inscription records, some of them unique, so volunteers must revisit about 120 sites; the Society is spending about Rs 15 lakh on backups, and the user has asked Anthropic to reimburse recovery and rebuilding costs (the user's account to OneIndia and Deccan Herald; not independently verified).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"partial","affectedCountEvidence":"One counted person: Udaya Kumar P L, who ran the agent and whose project records were lost (OneIndia). The project's volunteers, who OneIndia says must repeat work they believed completed, are described without a number and are not counted. The Mythic Society is an organisation and is not counted as a person. Partial: 1 counted plus unquantified volunteers.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"IN-KA","platformType":"agent","outcomeType":"media_coverage","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.oneindia.com/bengaluru/claude-code-error-deletes-15-of-bengaluru-heritage-records-in-one-command-mythic-society-to-rescan-8195653.html","primarySourceLabel":"OneIndia, 4 September 2026: Claude Code Error Deletes 15% Of Bengaluru Heritage Records In One Command, Mythic Society To Rescan 120 Sites","firstPublishedAt":"2026-09-29T09:09:00.711883+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-30T01:17:28.010966+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["claude-code","anthropic","coding-agent","data-loss","file-deletion","heritage","bengaluru","own-use","acted-on-behalf"]}]}