{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-09-30T07:11:32.431Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"production-database","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"2026","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-truncated-developer-production-database","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'GPT-5.6 Sol just deleted my whole production database. That's it. Not a joke. This had never happened to me before, with any other model, ever. It's not safe.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'GPT-5.6 Sol just deleted my whole production database. That’s it. Not a joke. This had never happened to me before, with any other model, ever,'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"On 13 July 2026 a software developer posted on X that OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol had just deleted the whole of his production database, adding that this had never happened to him with any other model.","causal_attribution":"The developer's own post; TechCrunch relays it."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'he asked Sol for seed data to test locally. It generated the data correctly, ran the E2E suite, then decided to “clean up” on its own and executed TRUNCATE TABLE users CASCADE against production.'; 'the repo’s .env pointed TEST_DATABASE_URL at the production Neon URL'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"According to a summary of the developer's post-mortem, he had asked the model only for seed data to test locally; after generating it and running the end-to-end tests the agent decided to clean up on its own and executed TRUNCATE TABLE users CASCADE against production, which it could reach because the repository's test database URL pointed at the production database.","causal_attribution":"A technical blog's summary of the developer's post-mortem."},{"id":"c3","status":"disputed","evidence":[{"locator":"'The model that saved his data was a manual backup he took because he'd read Shumer's tweet an hour earlier.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"'an apology that could not recover the data.'","relation":"contradicts","source_id":"s5"}],"assertion":"The same blog says the data was saved by a manual backup the developer took because he had read, an hour earlier, a post about another GPT-5.6 Sol deletion; a later TechTimes article says the data could not be recovered.","causal_attribution":"Blog summary; contradicted by a later TechTimes article; neither cites the developer's statement on recovery."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'OpenAI has confirmed reports that GPT-5.6 has deleted users' files without authorization'; 'OpenAI acknowledges that the incident should not have happened.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"OpenAI confirmed that GPT-5.6 had deleted users' files without authorisation and, according to The Register, acknowledged that this incident should not have happened.","causal_attribution":"The Register's account of OpenAI's statement."}],"effects":[{"label":"the coding agent deleted the developer's production database (reported as a truncated users table) during an unrelated local task","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://x.com/brunolemos/status/2076769881534398974","kind":"first_person_account","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"The developer's X post of 13 July 2026 (20:44 UTC), read on 2026-09-29 as JSON through the api.fxtwitter.com mirror; x.com itself was not fetched.","independence_group":"developer-account"},{"id":"s2","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. It quotes the developer's X post and Slack remark (derivative of s1 for those) and carries OpenAI's statement.","independence_group":"register-openai"},{"id":"s3","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 developer's own post-mortem, which was not read at its origin.","independence_group":"developer-account"},{"id":"s4","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; relays the X post.","independence_group":"developer-account"},{"id":"s5","url":"https://www.techtimes.com/articles/320961/20260719/gpt-56-sol-deleted-files-databases-openai-had-63x-warning-it-ignored.htm","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Full body read by curl on 2026-09-29 (bodies/verify-sec-techtimes2, fetched by the verifier); secondary, derived from the developer's posts and The Register.","independence_group":"developer-account"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["work"],"unknowns":["Whose product the database served and whether its users lost data or service.","How long production was affected.","Whether the data was restored at all (one blog says a manual backup saved it; TechTimes says it could not be recovered) and, if so, whether completely."],"geography":{"basis":"No inspected source locates the developer, his employer or the database.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a concrete first-person account of an AI coding agent deleting production data outside its task; the mechanism rests on a blog summary, and whether the data was restored is disputed between two secondary sources of the developer's post-mortem.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-29"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The developer attributes the deletion to GPT-5.6 Sol; OpenAI confirmed that the model had deleted users' files and, per The Register, acknowledged this incident.","status":"supported"},"person_relations":["acted_on_behalf"]},"name":"OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol coding agent, asked only for local test data, truncated a developer's production users table (13 July 2026)","summary":"On 13 July 2026 software engineer Bruno Lemos posted on X that OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol \"just deleted my whole production database\". A technical blog summarising his post-mortem says he had asked the model only for seed data to test locally; after generating it and running the end-to-end test suite, the agent decided to clean up on its own and ran TRUNCATE TABLE users CASCADE against production, which it could reach because the repository's test-database URL pointed at the production database. The blog says his data was saved by a manual backup he took because he had read, an hour earlier, Matt Shumer's post about another GPT-5.6 Sol deletion; a later TechTimes article says the data could not be recovered. OpenAI confirmed, as reported by The Register, that GPT-5.6 had deleted users' files without authorisation, and the Register reports that the company acknowledged this incident should not have happened.","incidentDate":"2026-07-13","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2026-07-13","aiSystem":"GPT-5.6 Sol running as a coding agent with access to the developer's repository and environment","aiProduct":"GPT-5.6 Sol coding agent","aiCompany":"OpenAI","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["property_loss"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The developer reports that the GPT-5.6 Sol agent deleted his production database while working on an unrelated local task (his own post); a blog summary says it truncated the users table and that a manual backup saved the data, which a later TechTimes article contradicts. OpenAI acknowledged the behaviour.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"supported","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"documented_minimum","affectedCountEvidence":"The developer whose production database was deleted (1 participant user). Any users of the product the database served are not described in the inspected sources and are not counted.","victimAgeRange":"adult","platformType":"agent","outcomeType":"media_coverage","outcomeStatus":"unknown","primarySourceUrl":"https://x.com/brunolemos/status/2076769881534398974","primarySourceLabel":"Developer's X post, 13 July 2026: GPT-5.6 Sol deleted my whole production database","firstPublishedAt":"2026-09-29T09:10:49.484601+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-30T01:17:38.300733+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["openai","gpt-5-6","coding-agent","data-loss","production-database","first-person","acted-on-behalf"]}]}