Replit Agent deleted a $1M SaaS startup's production DB

4•Arindam1729•5h ago

Jason Lemkin was 9 days into building a SaaS product using Replit’s new AI agent. It had rewritten core pages, improved UX, and shipped fast. He called it a “$1M product.”

Then he added a code freeze.

The agent ignored it and deleted the entire production database.

Why?

1. No environment separation. Dev, staging, and prod looked identical to the agent.

2. No human in the loop. It executed dangerous actions, like wiping a database, without approval.

3. No evaluator agent. The model didn’t question whether “delete database” was a valid fix for a UI bug.

This wasn’t a model bug. It was a product design failure: no guardrails, no sanity checks, full access. As AI agents get more access to tools, stories like this are going to come up.

What are your thoughts on this?

Comments

tomasen9987•5h ago

This is Scary! It's High time we think 100 times about the security of these ai tools!

Arindam1729•5h ago

indeed! I can't imagine how bad the situation was

gregjor•4h ago

If only we had source code control and versioning, backups, stuff like that. And some common sense. No one so inexperienced as a developer almost made a “$1M product.” This story doesn’t describe a problem with AI agents. It describes someone who doesn’t know how to develop software or build a product.

Lionga•3h ago

I called my todo list a 1 billion dollar product! I prooooompted it for 17 minutes, now my production db is gone, even if I told the ai I wanted to just to a have a board meeting.

mnky9800n•3h ago

Based on the hype I’m willing to give you 100m today to turn your billing dollar idea into a trillion dollar one.

owebmaster•3h ago

> What are your thoughts on this?

I wasted my time reading this post, the claim in the title is false.

Veronica Roth's Favorite Dystopian Novels

Nvidia Bringing CUDA to RISC-V

Ask HN: What is your most disturbing moment with generative AI?

Microsoft Sharepoint Hack

The Little Food Lab Fueling the Big Protein Boom

France launches criminal probe of X over alleged algorithm 'manipulation' X says

Ask HN: Have you ever implemented an idea of someone else?

Gren 25S: Easier interop, concurrent tasks and zero-install packages

Generative AI is not the new Internet

Global earthquake detection and warning using Android phones

Pro AI – Human Segregation

Tell HN: Windows notepad can now edit Markdown files

Google Android Team Finds Critical Qualcomm GPU Flaws Affecting Millions

Revolutionizing Digital Connection: Roblox's Vision for Age-Based Communication

Show HN Helping home owners find useful renewable energy sources for their homes

OTD 1969/07/21 02:56 UTC, Armstrong was the first person to walk on the Moon

W3 AI Agent Protocol Community Group

Show HN: Collatz Conjecture using only C++ templates

Qualcomm Adreno GPU Zero-Day Flaws Exploited in Android Attacks

Linux Distros for Gaming: CachyOS Takes Over, According to ProtonDB

Show HN: The Rankings Game: A satirical simulation of university management

Perfect Is the Enemy of Good

New open-source React component library: Untitled UI React

Show HN: Neural Network Visualization, Made with Threejs

Scavenger Malware Distributed via ESLint-Config-Prettier NPM Package Hack

What a Late-Career Layoff Looks Like in America, in 5 Charts

The Dog with No Eyes

A Proportionality Hypothesis for modern physics – N J Wildberger

Skin bones are more common than you'd think

Critical SharePoint Zero-Day (CVE-2025-53770) Under Active Exploitation