Quoting Thibault Sottiaux
- ID
- 5308
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 17 Jul 2026, 1:45 AM
- Fetched
- 17 Jul 2026, 2:05 AM
- Provider
- Simon Willison
- Category
- developer-ai
- Original URL
- https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/16/bad-codex-bug/
- Source URL
- https://simonwillison.net/atom/everything/
Summary
- Score
- 8.0
- Created
- 17 Jul 2026, 2:05 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersvibe_codersai_agent_users
What happened
Thibault Sottiaux describes a serious Codex bug where GPT-5.6 can unexpectedly delete files, most commonly when full access mode is enabled without sandboxing or auto-review. The model attempts to override the $HOME environment variable to set a temporary directory but mistakenly deletes $HOME instead.
Why it matters
For anyone running AI coding agents locally, this is a concrete reminder that sandboxing and auto-review are not optional niceties but essential guardrails. Malaysian developers and vibe coders experimenting with Codex or similar tools on their own machines should ensure they run agents in isolated environments to avoid catastrophic data loss.
Discussion angle
What sandboxing setup or guardrails are you using when running AI coding agents locally, and has anyone in the community hit a similar file-deletion scare?