{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-08T05:53:59.276Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"worktree","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":1,"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-codex-agent-deleted-main-project-worktree-in-long-session-uncommitted-work-lost-first-person-issue","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'In one recent case, Codex deleted the main project worktree.'; 'The repository was under Git, so part of the damage was recoverable, but some uncommitted work was lost and I had to recover additional files from a Time Machine backup.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The issue reports that in one recent case Codex deleted the main project worktree, that part of the damage was recoverable because the repository was under Git, that some uncommitted work was lost and that additional files had to be recovered from a Time Machine backup.","causal_attribution":"The author attributes the deletion to Codex."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'they must never delete or damage the primary working tree.'; 'including AGENTS.md and project governance files'; 'Over time I have ended up with a very large amount of stale worktree/cache data, on the order of ~100 GB.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The author says their repository governance files, including AGENTS.md, tell agents that they may create temporary worktrees but must never delete or damage the primary working tree, and that Codex sometimes leaves worktrees uncleaned, accumulating about 100 GB of stale worktree and cache data.","causal_attribution":"Author's account of their own configuration and observations."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'My orchestrator runs GPT-6.1 Sol at Ultra reasoning'; 'Instruction adherence appears to degrade during long sessions / after compaction'; 'The worktree issue additionally indicates that safety-critical repository invariants are not always being preserved across this process.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The issue states the setup as Codex CLI v0.160.1 running GPT-6.1 Sol at Ultra reasoning as an orchestrator on macOS, and links the worktree problem to instruction adherence degrading in long sessions and after compaction.","causal_attribution":"Author's interpretation."}],"effects":[{"label":"main project worktree deleted; some uncommitted work lost and other files restored from a Time Machine backup (author's account)","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/51672","kind":"first_person_account","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-08: the issue body including the attached Codex doctor report, retrieved through the GitHub API; no comments existed. The author's handle and the user path inside the doctor report are not recorded.","independence_group":"github-codex-51672-author"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["work"],"unknowns":["When the worktree deletion happened; the issue says only 'in one recent case'.","What the lost uncommitted work was and how much of it was unrecoverable.","Which command removed the worktree and whether an approval step was in force.","Where the author lives.","Whether OpenAI responded to the issue."],"geography":{"basis":"The issue 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 charter's public first-person rule as a concrete account of an AI coding agent deleting a user's main project worktree with uncommitted work lost, attributed throughout to the author's issue and uncorroborated; the deletion date is unknown and the loss is modest, so severity is low. The author's handle is not recorded.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-08"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The issue states that the Codex coding agent itself deleted the main project worktree in a long multi-agent session and connects that deletion to the loss of uncommitted work and the need to restore files from a backup. The account is the author's own and no other source describes the event.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["acted_on_behalf"]},"name":"GitHub issue by a Codex user: the coding agent deleted the main project worktree during a long session and some uncommitted work was lost, user says","summary":"In a GitHub issue filed on 7 October 2026 in the OpenAI Codex repository, a developer who runs the Codex coding agent in long multi-agent sessions on large repositories reports that in one recent case the agent deleted the main project worktree. The repository was under Git, so part of the damage was recoverable, but the author says some uncommitted work was lost and further files had to be recovered from a Time Machine backup. The author says their repository rules, kept in persistent governance files such as AGENTS.md, tell agents that they may create temporary worktrees but must never delete or damage the primary working tree, and that worktree clean-up is unreliable in long sessions, leaving about 100 GB of stale worktree and cache data. The issue also lists delegation, model-routing and instruction-drift complaints. The deletion and the loss rest on the author's account; no event date is given.","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"unknown","exposurePattern":"repeated_interactions","reportedDate":"2026-10-07","aiSystem":"OpenAI Codex CLI v0.160.1 running GPT-6.1 Sol at Ultra reasoning as an orchestrator with sub-agents and Git worktrees on macOS, per the issue","aiProduct":"Codex coding agent","aiCompany":"OpenAI","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["other_material_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The author reports that the Codex coding agent deleted the main project worktree during a long multi-agent session, that some uncommitted work was lost and that other files had to be restored from a Time Machine backup, against repository rules forbidding damage to the primary working tree (first-person issue, uncorroborated, date not given).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the issue's author. Exact 1.","victimAgeRange":"unknown","jurisdiction":"unknown","platformType":"agent","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/51672","primarySourceLabel":"GitHub issue openai/codex #51672, 7 October 2026: long-running sessions, instruction drift, worktree lifecycle failures and primary worktree deletion","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-08T03:27:55.675902+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-08T03:27:55.675902+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["first-person","github-issue","codex","ai-agent","coding-agent","data-loss","worktree","instruction-drift","acted-on-behalf"]}]}