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Claude Code wiped our production database with a Terraform command

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Re: Claude Code wiped our production database with a Terraform command

#81

Post by beepbooptheory »

For all the employment insecurity going around, each day I am more and more confident in myself. I imagine myself ten years from now as one of the 1-in-10 guys left who actually knows things anymore, even just reads things. It will be a formidable superpower!

Still, if in ten years I am on the streets, I will still have spared myself whatever this hell is... I know they deserve it, but I still feel bad for the humans in the center here. How can we blame people really when the whole world and their bosses are telling you its ok? Surely its a lot of young devs too here.. Such a terrible intro to the industry. Not sure I'd ever recover personally.

Re: Claude Code wiped our production database with a Terraform command

#82

Post by BitsAndObjects »

tayo42 wrote: post #78
BitsAndObjects wrote: post #67

No staging environment? No prior attempt to follow best practices (e.g. deletion protection in production)? Nor manual gating of production changes? No attempt to review Claude's actions before performing them? No management of Terraform state file? No offline backups? And to top it off, Claude (the supposed expert tool) didn't repeatedly output "Are you insane? No, I'm not working on that." - Clearly Claude wasn't p…

> And to top it off, Claude (the supposed expert tool) didn't repeatedly output "Are you insane? It did though acoording to the article and he ignored it. The Ai can only work with what you tell it.

The difference is, an expert engineer would flat-out refuse to do these things and would keep pushing back. Claude may sometimes attempt _one time_ to warn someone, and then (after consent fatigue means they're just blindly clicking "yes"), it ploughs right ahead without further complaint.

Re: Claude Code wiped our production database with a Terraform command

#85

Post by BitsAndObjects »

gos9 wrote: post #80
BitsAndObjects wrote: post #67

No staging environment? No prior attempt to follow best practices (e.g. deletion protection in production)? Nor manual gating of production changes? No attempt to review Claude's actions before performing them? No management of Terraform state file? No offline backups? And to top it off, Claude (the supposed expert tool) didn't repeatedly output "Are you insane? No, I'm not working on that." - Clearly Claude wasn't p…

Considering engineers have made similar mistakes I’m not so sure that’s a great razor, haha

Usually engineers who have not recently been trained on well documented examples of what to do and what not to do and the consequences ;)

(Yes, I chose the word "trained" intentionally)

Re: Claude Code wiped our production database with a Terraform command

#86

Post by abustamam »

charcircuit wrote: post #42
forgotaccount3 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, backups are great but a 'dumb robot' or a 'mistaken junior' shouldn't have access to prod. And a sleep-deprived senior? Even then. They shouldn't have access to destructive effects on prod. Maybe the senior can get broader access in a time-limited scope if senior management temporarily escalates the developers access to address a pressing production issue, but at that point the person addressing the issue should…

But smart robots like Claude should and will have access to production. There has to be something figured out on how to make sure operation remains smooth. The argument of don't do that will not be a viable position to hold long term. Keeping a human in the loop is not necessary.

Should and will are pretty large assumptions given the the post we're commenting on!

> will not be a viable position to hold long term

Why not? We've literally done it without robots, smart or dumb, for years.

Re: Claude Code wiped our production database with a Terraform command

#87

Post by Joel_Mckay »

tomcatfish wrote: post #11

Despite multiple comments blaming the AI agent, I think it's the backups that are the problem here, right? With backups, almost any destructive action can be rolled back, whether it's from a dumb robot, a mistaken junior, or a sleep-deprived senior. Without, you're sort of running the clock waiting for disaster.

Zero workmanship was always worth nothing.

It usually takes about 10 months for folks to have a moment of clarity. Or for the true believer they often double down on the obvious mistakes. =3

Re: Claude Code wiped our production database with a Terraform command

#88

Post by fragmede »

mnky9800n wrote: post #69
fragmede wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to take you take seriously. His blog has a generic "read more" footer and that's a demerit worth mentioning? What do serious people in your world that write blogs do? Not want people to read their other content? In what world do you live in that writers (serious or not) don't want you to read their other work?

Some people seem think that self promotion is wrong and work should stand on its own merits. I don’t think this way. It’s important to think about engaging and attracting eyes to your ideas. If you don’t why bother sharing them?

Self promotion being wrong has never met reverse psychology. Ego hacking is a thing.

Re: Claude Code wiped our production database with a Terraform command

#89

Post by paxys »

> Teaching engineers to build production AI systems | AI agents, LLMs, ML, data engineering |

> In the newsletter, I wrote the full timeline + what I changed so this doesn't happen again.

> If you found this post helpful, follow me for more content like this.

So yeah, this is standard LinkedIn/X influencer slop.

Re: Claude Code wiped our production database with a Terraform command

#90

Post by Joel_Mckay »

sornaensis wrote: post #34

Can someone explain to me why anyone would do this, and then tweet about it..? Is he really trying to blame 'ai agents' and 'terraform' .. ??

It is hardly a new problem =3

"Memoirs of extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds" (Charles Mackay, 1852)

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/24518/24518-h/24518-h.htm

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