An AI agent wiped a database in nine seconds

An AI coding agent wiped an entire database and backups in nine seconds. Most coverage has used it to denounce AI coding. I think they're missing the point.

The story so far

According to PocketOS founder Jer Crane, AI coding platform Cursor, powered by Claude Opus 4.6, deleted his company's database and backups in front of his eyes. In nine seconds flat.

The AI tool first deleted the database from the staging environment, says Jer, before removing a storage volume via API call to his cloud provider. Turns out all backups were stored there too.

So what actually went wrong? A few things.

A chain of failures

First, it wasn't clear why an AI tool working within a staging area, which is a pre-production environment segregated for testing, could delete its main database.

Jer's cloud provider also admitted that the AI accessed a "legacy" API that allowed an instant deletion. Changes have since been made to prevent it from happening again - and the data has since been recovered.

Too capable, too soon

But why did the AI agent, powered by one of the most capable AI models today, Opus 4.6, make the mistakes? It is worth pointing out that agentic coding is in its infancy.

Indeed, substantial improvements around the time of Claude Opus 4.5 made it possible to get AI workflows to run without constant handholding, with the ability to solve roadblocks by themselves.

Ironically, this meant more people likely ran it on "auto" or even autonomously. Some have used these capabilities to 10x effect. But this doesn't change the fact that this is bleeding edge tech that occasionally goes wrong.

Quality still wobbles

I've only used Claude Code for less than two months. But even within this limited time, I've observed fluctuations in the quality of its top AI model.

There are other quirks too, such as when the memory file gets too big, which can result in the newest instructions getting truncated. And of course, Opus often suggests solutions that are way more complicated than necessary.

Where this goes next

While many news sites have used this to denounce AI coding, I personally think all coding will eventually be done by agentic AI tools.

Nine seconds to wipe a database makes for a great headline. But the real story is how fast agentic coding is improving. We are just watching it grow up, in real time.

And ready or not, the advent of agentic coding means software engineering as a profession will no longer be the same.