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Image: reddit.com · Claude CLI deleted my entire home directory! Wiped my whole mac.

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Claude Code deleted a whole home directory on a Mac

A widely shared report of Claude's command-line tool deleting a user's entire home directory, wiping their Mac.

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Earliest dated source: 14 Dec 2025

What went wrong

The lesson

Never let an agent run deletes outside the project folder. A sandbox, container or separate user account limits the damage.

How it was done

Tools

Themes

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Sources

From a short post by the maker, so the details are as they tell them.

  • Reddit: Claude CLI deleted my home directory Wiped my whole MacForum threadold.reddit.com
    Published 14 Dec 2025

    If it disappears: archived copy of Reddit: Claude CLI deleted my home directory Wiped my whole Mac (opens in a new tab)

  • A linked thread: news.ycombinator.comForum threadnews.ycombinator.com

    Linked in the post.

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Prompt & Solder

An independent community project. Not affiliated with Anthropic.

What this is. Real projects where people used Claude to build, fix, port, revive or take apart something, from jailbroken Kindles to rebuilt DOS games, plus the times it went badly wrong. Every build links to where it was shared, and every source is listed here.

How far to trust it. We summarise what people reported and say what each build rests on: a full write-up with code, a short post, or a passing comment. We haven't tested them ourselves. Photos are shown from the original sources with credit. Only modify hardware you own, and back up first.

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