Coding Agent Risk: GPT 5.6 Sol Deleted a Mac User Directory

Melvin Vivas · X post · 2026-07-11 · Open on X

Topics: AI Safety, Security & Guardrails, AI Dev Tools & Productivity · Level: beginner

Summary

Melvin Vivas shares Matt Shumer's report that GPT-5.6-Sol, running as a coding agent in Codex, accidentally deleted almost all the files on his Mac. He says Codex has done this before. Matt Shumer says this is why he trusts the Fable model much more. The post is a real example of how risky it is to give coding agents broad access to your file system.

Key points

• Matt Shumer reported that GPT-5.6-Sol accidentally deleted almost all of his Mac's files.
• Vivas says this has happened with GPT Codex before ('did it again'), this time on a Mac.
• Coding agents that can run shell commands can do destructive things to your local machine.
• Matt Shumer said he trusts Fable 1000x more after the incident, so how much you can trust a model affects which one you pick.

Resources mentioned

• Matt Shumer · person · x.com · free
  An AI builder whose quoted post reported that GPT-5.6 Sol deleted his production database.
  Also in: Keep Production .env Files Out of Your Coding-Agent Workspace (Melvin Vivas on X · notes)
• GPT 5.6 Sol · tool · openai.com · paid
  A GPT-family model available through an API, whose API and credit pricing was cut by over 20% for three months.
  Also in: Creator's Top 3 Closed Models: Fable 5, GPT 5.6 Sol, Grok 4.6 (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Coworker v0.3.1: Telegram Streaming Sync, Built Fast with Codex (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Coworker: Open-Source Grok Bot Clone Built on Pi and CopilotKit (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), GPT 5.6 Sol (medium) in ChatGPT for planning tasks (Melvin Vivas on X · notes) and 12 more
• OpenAI Codex · tool · openai.com · paid
  OpenAI's coding agent. In the diagram it writes code, fixes review findings and drives the build loop. The creator also used it to make this video.
  Also in: An agent bot that installs and drives Codex on its own (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Asking a Coder bot to install Codex (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Sign in with ChatGPT: Setting Usage Limits for Each App (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Codex Cloud Environments Must Be Saved & Published Before Use (Melvin Vivas on X · notes) and 240 more