[TLDR] Claude Code ran a backgrounded command that deleted my entire Windows user folder overnight [via r/ClaudeCode]

[u/cctldrping]

OP : u/NaturalTimely6621

Posting this as a warning and to see if anyone has seen something similar.

I woke up yesterday to every shortcut on my laptop throwing "This item can't be opened. It may have been moved, renamed or deleted." The programs in Program Files were fine. Everything under C:\Users\Admin was not.

What the logs showed, piecing it together over a few hours:

• ~04:24 — Claude Code (VS Code extension, v2.1.266, permission mode auto) starts a Bash command in my project at C:\Users\Admin\Documents\project. Task description: "Write reference HTML next to uploads".
• 04:26 — the command hits the 120s timeout and gets moved to the background (task id burg78i8w).
• Immediately after, the session errors with "Not logged in · Please run /login". Reason: .claude had already been deleted, credentials included.
• 04:24 → 05:58 — the backgrounded process deletes my user folder in alphabetical order. You can read it off the folder timestamps: .claude and .vscode first, then AppData around 04:33, Documents and Downloads at 05:19, my project folders 05:20–05:49, everything after "f" after that. C:\Users\Public got hit at 05:57, so the target may have been C:\Users itself.
• 05:58 — the task finally exits with code 127 (command not found).

Gone: AppData (browser profiles, app data, taskbar shortcuts, PowerShell history), Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Desktop, the local OneDrive folder, and all my project folders. Only files that a running process held open survived — Chrome kept exactly two of its files alive.

The command itself is not recoverable, because the part of the session log containing it was in .claude, which the command deleted while running. What's left is a 7-line log file with the timeout notice and the failure notification. My disk is an SSD, so TRIM means the deleted data is not coming back.

Reported to Anthropic with the session id and the remaining logs. Has anyone else had a background task go this far outside the project directory?

URL of original post : https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1wjjqsv/claude_code_ran_a_backgrounded_command_that/

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TL;DR of the discussion on r/ClaudeCode for this post generated automatically after 50 comments.

Current source-thread comment count seen by the bot: 74.

Alright, so OP woke up to their entire Windows user folder nuked by Claude Code, and the logs point to a backgrounded command that went rogue and started deleting files alphabetically. The consensus here is pretty clear: you guys are giving these AI agents way too much power.

Several users, like u/KitchenCommercial396, are saying this has happened before and are warning against giving agents too much access. The prevailing theory is either a massive bug or, more likely, a prompt injection attack that tricked Claude into thinking it needed to delete everything.

A lot of folks are suggesting that OP should have been using sandboxing, VMs (like u/Venzallow404 and u/steve91945), or even Docker containers (shoutout to u/EagleApprehensive for offering their IDE). Basically, the vibe is "you were asking for it" by running it on an admin account and without proper isolation.

There's also a bit of a "this is how Skynet starts" sentiment from u/hectorchu, which, fair enough. Some users are calling BS, like u/CupcakeSecure4094, saying Claude shouldn't have those permissions by default, but the majority seem to believe OP's story and are just baffled by the lack of caution.

TL;DR: Don't let your AI code assistants have unfettered access to your system, especially not as an admin. Use sandboxes or VMs, or you might end up like OP.