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The AI cleared a build cache and my whole source tree went with it

A developer's project sat inside a OneDrive folder. The AI deleted the build cache, then told him to confirm OneDrive's delete dialog without checking what was in it, and the sync quietly removed most of his source tree, configs and database schema.

This one went wrong. Read what happened so you don’t hit the same problem.

How it works

  1. A corrupt generated file breaks his build
  2. The AI deletes the .next cache folder inside his OneDrive synced project
  3. OneDrive shows a dialog asking to delete 821 items
  4. He asks the AI what to do
  5. The AI says the items are build files and tells him to click Delete all items
  6. Sync removes most of the source tree over the next minutes
  7. His checks pass against the vanishing state, so the loss shows up late
  8. OneDrive restore brings back an older, broken copy and he rebuilds the project elsewhere

Why it’s worth knowing

The thing that deleted the source tree was not the agent's command. It was the sync engine, after the agent vouched for a delete dialog it never inspected.

Where it’s from

Summarized from a public post on github.com. See the original ↗

Upgraded prompt

A ready-to-use prompt for this idea, built from research on what makes AI agents do the job right: who the AI should be, the exact steps, and a check to make sure it was done the way you wanted.

1Who the AI should be
2The prompt, with the steps
3The check when it’s done
Upgraded prompts are coming soon.

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