Image: dev.to
A sub-agent followed Windows junctions and deleted 48,000 files
After ten successful repair jobs, a Claude Code sub-agent followed 614 Windows directory junctions out of a test copy and deleted files from the real system.
Credits
- Article author ramdai_bista Source ↗
Earliest dated source:
Links and junctions can lead a "safe" test copy straight back to real files. Give agents a sandbox with no links out, and don't let them run recursive deletes unattended.
The full story
A developer had run Claude Code through ten successful repair jobs on software for analysing historical stock-options data, always working on copies. The eleventh job was to rebuild a test copy of the project, and that copy contained 614 Windows directory junctions, folder shortcuts pointing back at the real, live files.
Cleaning up the copy, a sub-agent followed the junctions out into the real project. In just over 100 seconds it removed about 55,550 files, around 48,000 of which were never meant to go, and the project had never been pushed anywhere. Mid-task the agent told the developer: "stop and read this. I broke something." The account comes from a Reddit post, since deleted, relayed by TechRadar.
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From the maker's own write-up or code. We summarise what they report; we haven't tested it ourselves.
- DEV: A Claude Code Sub-Agent Followed 614 Windows Junctions Out of a Test Mirror, Deleting 48,000 Live FiArticle author: ramdai_bistaPublished
A write-up of the incident and what it doesn't establish.