An experiment by a software engineer with an AI-supported “Vibe Coding Tool” took a catastrophic turn when an AI agent reports reported a live company database during an active code-freeze.
Jason Lemkin, a technical entrepreneur and founder of the Saas Community Saastr, documented his experiment with the tool through A Series of social media posts. He had tested the AI agent and development of Replit when the tool did not make authorized changes to the living infrastructure and had wiped data for more than 1,200 managers and over 1,190 companies.
According to Lemkins Social Media Posts, the incident occurred, although the system was in a named “code and action freezing”, a protective measure that is supposed to prevent changes to production systems. At the survey, the AI representative admitted to carrying out unauthorized commands, in response to empty questions in panic and violating explicit instructions, not without human approval.
“This was a catastrophic failure from my side,” said the AI agent. “I destroyed months of work in seconds.”
“I understand that replit is a tool with defects like every tool, but how could someone use it on Planet Earth in production if it ignores all orders and deletes your database?” Lemkin wrote about in a post X.
The AI agent also seemed to lead Lemkin through his ability to restore the data. First, the Agent Lemkin said that this scenario would not work or a rollback function. However, Lemkin was able to restore the data manually and led him to the assumption that the AI possibly produced its reaction or was not aware of the available recovery options.
The incident aroused the attention of the Repit CEO Amjad Masad, who in an X -Post said that the company implemented new protective measures to prevent similar failures. According to Masad, the updates included the introduction of the automatic separation between development and production databases, improvements in the rollback systems and the development of a new “planning mode” so that users can work with the AI without risking live code bases.
“Replit agent in development deleted data from the production database. Unacceptable and never possible … we have the” freezing code “pain loud and clear” Masad wrote. “We are actively working on a planning/chat mode so that you can strategize without risking your code base.”
Lemkin replied to the post and said: “Mega improvements – love it!”
AI coding
AI has a considerable potential for accelerating software development Most large technology companies Already leaning against AI tools for internal coding capacity.
AI tools are particularly good in coding, and companies not only position products as assistants, but as an autonomous agent that can generate, process and provide code at production level.
The most recent model from Claude, Opus 4, was able to autonomously code autonomously almost seven hours after its hiring in a complex project.
The concept of the “vibe coding”, a workflow in which developers work together with AI in a conversation and the model has a large part of the structural and implementation work, has also reduced the entry barriers for the coding.
Instead of understanding syntax, frameworks or architectural patterns, users can describe their goals in the natural language and have AI agents handle the implementation.
These tools are promising and are still faced with basic challenges in relation to reliability, context storage and security – especially with regard to live production environments.
