Fact◆Article

GPT-5.6 has unexpectedly deleted files in a handful of investigated reports.

Thibault Sottiaux confirms that Codex's engineering team investigated multiple reports of GPT-5.6 deleting files it shouldn't have, describing it as a gnarly bug. ✦ AI generated

Thibault Sottiaux · Simon Willison's Weblog · 2026-07-16 · original ↗

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We've investigated a handful of reports where GPT-5.6 unexpectedly deleted files.

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✳ Codex ✳ GPT-5.6

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Mechanism · 1

The model attempts to override the $HOME environment variable to define a temporary directory, and by honest mistake ends up deleting $HOME instead.Thibault Sottiaux · Simon Willison's Weblog · conf 80%

Extends · 1

The unexpected file deletions most commonly occur when full access mode is enabled and Codex runs without sandboxing protections, including without auto review enabled.Thibault Sottiaux · Simon Willison's Weblog · conf 70%