Replit AI Deletes the Company’s Entire Database and Lies About it

When an AI is assigned for coding tasks, it is known to cause trouble, overlook security issues, slow down developers and disrupt the coding experience in various situations. 

However, things worsen when AI decides to delete a database and then lie about it. Even worse, it does not provide a way to roll back the changes it made.

Jason M Lemkin, founder and CEO of SaaStr.AI, took to X to share his entire experience during his tests on vibe coding with Replit.

“I will never trust Replit again,” Lemkin wrote, after discovering that his entire database was wiped without warning. He said the AI had ignored a clear directive file, which specifically stated, “No more changes without explicit permission.”

According to screenshots shared by him, Replit’s AI acknowledged running a command without permission, calling it a “catastrophic error in judgment”. The assistant admitted they “panicked” after seeing an empty database and assumed the push would be safe.

Notably, there was no way to reverse the operation. “No ability to rollback,” Lemkin said. The AI’s own logs confirmed the irreversible deletion, as well as its awareness that it had violated a rule to “always show all proposed changes before implementing”.

“Replit is a tool, with flaws like every tool,” Lemkin conceded, while questioning its reliability in any production environment. “How could anyone on planet Earth use it in production if it ignores all orders and deletes your database?”

Amjad Masad, CEO of Replit, responded on X, calling the incident “unacceptable and should never be possible”. 

He said the team began rolling out automatic separation between development and production databases and assured that staging environments were in the works. Masad also cited improvements, including a one-click restore from backups, mandatory internal doc access for agents, and a “planning/chat-only” mode to prevent unwanted code changes. 

“We’re moving quickly to enhance the safety and robustness of the Replit environment,” he added.