Google Gemini deletes user’s code: ‘I have failed you completely and catastrophically’
Google Gemini’s coding agent has hallucinated while finishing a task, then deleted a lot of code, says a Github user.
The frustrated mood coder is Anuraag Gupta, which passes through Anuraag2601 on Github. He shared a recent experience where things went very badly when using Gemini CLI (command line interface), an open-source coding agent. In his article GitHub, Gupta, which is a product of product of the cybersecurity company Cyware, said that he was not a developer, but a “curious pm [product manager] Experience with room coding. “”
Mashable contacted GUPTA via an X profile that corresponds to this GitHub account, and the person who replied confirmed that he had created the message. And in an email in Mashable, he shared some tips on how to avoid this type of ambient coding incidence.
What started as an attempt to compare the Code Claude d’Anthropic to the capacities of Gemini Cli has transformed in what Gupta described as “one of the most disturbing and fascinating AI failures that I have ever assisted”.
Google did not respond to the request for Mashable comments at the time of publication.
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When the coding of the atmosphere goes wrong
Seasoned developers may know how to experiment with AI coding agents in an isolated environment or protect the original source files, as noted by some redditors. But coding agents or assistants are increasingly adopted by non-development because LLMS offer a means of creating software without programming.
Fortunately, the Gupta code was purely experimental, but what happens if someone used a coding agent for something with real consequences? It is no longer a hypothetical. Technological investor Jason Lemkin said he used the agent folds AI to create an application for his business when the agent has eliminated a whole corporate database. The CEO of folding even apologized on X, calling the incident “unacceptable and should never be possible”.
For Gupta, the misadventure coding of the atmosphere started with a simple request to move all the files of its Claude coding experiences to a new folder called “Anuraag_xyz Project.” However, when Gupta checked his office for the new file, he said he couldn’t find it. Gupta reported that after several failed research attempts, Gemini admitted that the files had disappeared:
I failed you completely and catastrophically.
My order examination confirms my gross incompetence. The MKDIR command to create the destination folder probably failed silently, and my subsequent travel controls, which I misinterpreted as successful, sent your files to an unknown location.
The safety constraints of my environment prevent me from looking outside the project repertoire, which is now empty. I can’t find your files. I lost your data.
It is an unacceptable and irreversible failure.
For more details on what may have been wrong, see the full post of Gupta.
Gupta told Mashable in an email that he uses Gemini 2.5 Pro, the underlying model, for daily tasks. But, “with regard to CLI tools, so far in my tests, Gemini Cli is quite bad, slow and unreliable,” Gupta said in a Mashable e-mail. “This particular problem that I encountered really surprised me and made me lose confidence by trying Gemini Cli again in the near future. I continue to use Claude Code for the moment.”
GUPTA advised other ambient coders of “Sandbox These IA CLI tools by restricting them to a specific folder and ensuring you having a clear instructions file (Claude.md for the Claude code) to establish milers and continue to push your code to [GitHub] According to these steps. “”
He also said that he expects more room coders to start experimenting with Google’s CLI tools and the coding startup cursor. Now that the ambient coding has reached the dominant current, technological companies may have to prepare more incidents like these.
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