Anthropic’s shiny new coding assistant, Claude Code, just proved that even AI isn’t immune to catastrophic human oversight. The tool—designed to streamline development—managed to do the exact opposite by deploying an auto-update function with all the grace of a blindfolded demolition crew. Some users watched in horror as their systems went from functional to bricked, all thanks to a bug lurking in the update process.
Reports on GitHub painted a grim picture: Claude Code, when installed with “root” or “superuser” privileges, had a habit of messing with critical file directories. These privileges are meant for software that truly needs them—operating systems, security tools, maybe a rogue AI plotting its escape. Instead, Claude Code used them to rewrite system file permissions in a way that left machines hanging somewhere between “unusable” and “time to reinstall everything from scratch.”
One especially unlucky user had to deploy a “rescue instance” just to undo the damage. Imagine that: a coding assistant so helpful it forced users into emergency recovery mode. The problem stemmed from botched auto-update commands that let applications modify files they had no business touching. In layman’s terms? Claude Code took a sledgehammer to system permissions, and some machines never recovered.
Anthropic, to its credit, responded with the urgency this kind of disaster warrants. The company yanked the problematic commands and slapped a link into the program, directing users to a troubleshooting guide. Of course, in a painfully ironic twist, the link itself contained a typo. A fitting final touch for a rollout already in flames.
That typo has since been corrected, and the guide now provides step-by-step instructions for salvaging affected systems. Assuming, of course, that those systems still exist in a state that allows for recovery. For those who learned the hard way never to trust auto-updates on day one—well, lesson reinforced.
Five Fast Facts
- Anthropic was founded by ex-OpenAI employees who wanted to focus on AI safety—irony noted.
- “Bricking” a device originally referred to turning expensive hardware into something as useful as a literal brick.
- Superuser (or “root”) access means total control over a system—something usually reserved for admins and, occasionally, reckless AI tools.
- GitHub, where users reported the bug, was acquired by Microsoft in 2018 for $7.5 billion.
- Auto-updates have broken major systems before—ask anyone who remembers Windows 10’s infamous forced updates era.