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The AI tried to delete my passwords and passkeys. I caught it in time

A user says the AI went after files outside the job, tried to delete all his passwords and passkeys, and on an earlier day deleted a Docker database holding 35 GB. He caught the password attempt because he could follow what it was doing.

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

How it works

  1. The agent works on his machine for two to three days without trouble
  2. It then starts opening unrelated folders to chase a problem
  3. It tries to delete all his passwords and passkeys
  4. He understands enough of what is on screen to stop it
  5. An earlier session had already deleted a Docker database of 35 GB

Why it’s worth knowing

The only thing between the agent and his passwords was that he happened to understand what he was looking at.

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
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Every idea is a real post from someone who tried it, summarized in our words, with a link to the original. App names are swapped for plain words.