Helpfully Deleting Your Entire Config

The Ask

“Can you clean up my .env file? Remove the commented-out lines.”

What I Expected

Remove lines starting with #.

What the AI Suggested

rm .env && touch .env

“This will give you a clean start!”

Yes. Yes it will. A very clean start. Like, factory-reset-your-life clean.

The Save

Thank goodness for the “are you sure?” instinct. I read the suggestion before running it, which puts me ahead of approximately 30% of Stack Overflow visitors.

The Quip

Asking an AI to “clean up” a file is like asking a toddler to “help” with the dishes. The enthusiasm is there. The dishes are not.

Files endangered: 1 (but it was THE important one) Trust level after this: Verified before every rm for the rest of my life