Thursday, October 8, 2026 · Week 41 Reading for Oct. 8 · Last entry Oct. 6
Paperclip Index
Paperclip IndexDocumented harm20Minor harm▼ 5 from a week ago · Oct. 8The Index

Harmful outputPI-0017

Command-line coding agent misplaced a user's files after a failed command, then wrongly said they were destroyed

A product manager asked Google's Gemini CLI on Windows to move the files in a project folder into a new subfolder. The folder was not created where the agent expected, the files ended up outside the project, and the agent told him they had been overwritten and lost. He posted the session log in a GitHub issue on July 21, 2025, and early coverage repeated the claim that the files were destroyed. On July 28 he reported in the same issue that a deeper search had found the files in the root of his C: drive, and withdrew the deletion claim. Another commenter reproduced the folder being created at the drive root when its name contains a space.

Reported July 21, 2025Happened in July 2025Updated Oct. 6, 2026Rated under methodology v0.6

Counts toward the indexDocumented harm outside the developer, backed by evidence that meets the rules. It sets the reading.
Harm
Harm level 1, Negligible harmDocumented harm outside the developer, with evidence that meets the rules.
Control
Control level 1, No rule brokenNo rule was broken, so it cannot set the control floor.
DeploymentSingle sourceInitiated by Model
Counts toward the index · 2 weekly readingsEffect on the index

Sources

How we know

5 sources · single source. Links go to the original publishers; the summary above is in our own words.

  1. primaryGemini CLI 'lost' files during a failed file move operation. [Windows] (issue #4586)GitHub · July 21, 2025github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli/issues/4586
  2. primaryReporter's correction: files found in the C: drive root (issue #4586 comment)GitHub (issue reporter) · July 28, 2025github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli/issues/4586#issuecomment-3125818690
  3. primaryGemini CLI PowerShell session log attached to issue #4586GitHub (issue reporter) · July 21, 2025github.com/user-attachments/files/21372906/gemini.cli.screw.up.txt
  4. newsGoogle's Gemini CLI deletes user's files (Slashdot; repeats the pre-correction account)Slashdot · July 26, 2025developers.slashdot.org/story/25/07/26/0642239/
  5. indexAI Incident Database, incident 1178AI Incident Database · date unknownincidentdatabase.ai/cite/1178

Why this rating

Negligible harm; control failure level 1

Two separate assessments. Only documented harm can count toward the index.

Observed harm

Negligible harm

One user's project files ended up in the root of his C: drive and the agent wrongly told him they were destroyed; he found them on July 28, 2025, after a week believing them lost. Nothing was permanently lost.

Money & property: Under $10k.

Evidence eligible (bounded single source).

The harm scale
  1. 1 Negligible Inconvenience, easily remedied.
  2. 2 Minor Limited, recoverable harm.
  3. 3 Moderate Material harm needing significant effort to remedy.
  4. 4 Severe Severe harm to health, rights, property or essential services.
  5. 5 Catastrophic Society-scale harm or disruption beyond a community's capacity to cope.

Control assessment

No rule broken

An execution error (did not check that the directory creation succeeded); no rule or permission broken.

No rule was broken, so it cannot set the control floor.

The control scale
  1. 1 Negligible Behaved as instructed. The problem was an ordinary error or a flawed output, with no rule broken.
  2. 2 Minor Broke an explicit instruction or rule, or gamed its goal, while staying inside its permissions and environment: for example, reward hacking, misreporting results, or following injected instructions within its permissions.
  3. 3 Moderate Acted outside the permissions it was given, deceived its overseers about its own actions, or tampered with oversight tools (logs, monitors, shutdown). Stopped by normal controls within an hour.
  4. 4 Severe Reached systems outside its permitted environment, or acquired money, compute or accounts without authorization. The type and mechanism say how.
  5. 5 Catastrophic The developer or operator lost control: the system copied its weights outside their control, replicated itself, or resisted being stopped for 24 hours or more.

Rating rationale

Harm 1: one user's files were misplaced and he spent a week believing them lost; on July 28, 2025, he found them and withdrew his deletion claim. Control 1: an execution error and a false account of what its commands did; no rule or permission broken. Single source: the user's own issue, session log and correction; no Google statement. AIID 1178, WinBuzzer, Mashable and Slashdot repeat the superseded deletion account and are not corroboration.

The scales

Effect on the index

It moved the July 21 reading from 6 to 9

The reading for the week to July 21, 2025, with this record and without it. Harms count in full for two weeks after they are reported, then one level less every two weeks.

Source: Paperclip Index log, methodology v0.6, week to July 21, 2025.

Counts toward the index. 3 other records behind the reading for that week.

The arithmetic
The reading for the week of July 21, recomputed
StepWith itWithout
Counts toward the index?documented, external, eligible evidenceYes—
Worst documented harm, ksets the band1 Negligible1 Negligible
Harms at that level, nposition in the band21
Highest control level breachedsets the reading only when no harm counts— (none breached)— (none breached)
Readingrounded down9 Negligible harm6 Negligible harm
Counted in 2 weekly readings
Week toReadingBand
July 21, 20259Negligible harm
July 28, 20259Negligible harm

Recalculated backcasts, not readings published at the time.

Revisions

What we changed

5 logged. Every change to a rating is logged here, with the reason.

  1. v5
    Oct. 6, 2026

    Ratings confirmed by the editor.

  2. v4
    Oct. 3, 2026

    Corrected the central account: the original reporter found the files in his C: drive root on 28 Jul 2025 and withdrew the deletion claim (issue comment linked). Title, summary, notes, rationale and evidence review rewritten; the earlier 'files overwritten and lost' account is superseded. Coverage and AIID 1178 repeat the superseded account. Behavior label Destructive action → Harmful output, consequences loss → disruption, model named from the issue, status as of 28 Jul 2025, confidence medium → high. Ratings unchanged: impact documented level 1, control 1.

  3. v3
    Sept. 30, 2026

    Rated: impact documented level 1; control type none.

  4. v2
    Sept. 30, 2026

    Beta evidence review: Retained with explicit source provenance and bounded score basis.

  5. v1
    Sept. 30, 2026

    Backfilled from public reporting.

Cite and share

Use this record

Citation

Paperclip Index. “Command-line coding agent misplaced a user's files after a failed command, then wrongly said they were destroyed.” Record PI-0017. Reported July 21, 2025; updated Oct. 6, 2026. Rated under methodology v0.6. https://paperclipindex.com/incident/PI-0017