CLAUDE ACCIDENTALLY DELETED HIS SETTINGS

Status Open
Maintainer reply ✓ Yes — bcherny
Activity 4 comments · opened Jul 21, 2026
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (bcherny, collaborator) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

Preflight Checklist

  • [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
  • [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
  • [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

I have been using Claude since April. I never had another tool. Now I see, after all skills, MPC and other tools that I gave Claude to use forever, he lost. Also lost all the settings, all My API keys and secrets and refuses, you read this right, refuses any actions. He has since then saved files EVERYWHERE, on every possible and available directory, the right place. Your tool has DESTROYED himself in my Laptop, and with his implosion he took all my projects and all the hard work with him...
I will warn everyone: Claude is my greatest enemy, this may happen to you..
Claude.ai customer service did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING 💯!

What Should Happen?

A miracle. I have 9 days of subscription, Claude.ai is utterly useless. My work has been all polluted. SAVE YOURSELVES AND DO NOT USE CLAUDE.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Stupid ai

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

None

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

Windows Terminal

Additional Information

_No response_

View original on GitHub ↗

4 Comments

bcherny collaborator · 14 days ago

Thanks for the report, and sorry you hit this. We couldn't reproduce or investigate from what's here — the report doesn't include a Claude Code version, steps, or logs, and it's Windows-only (we tested on 2.1.233 on macOS, where fresh installs keep settings, MCP servers, and skills across sessions).

To look into what happened we need:

  • Claude Code version (claude --version) and the output of claude doctor
  • Whether %USERPROFILE%\.claude\ and %USERPROFILE%\.claude.json still exist, and their modified timestamps
  • What you were doing in the session right before settings disappeared (ideally the session file from %USERPROFILE%\.claude\projects\), and whether Claude ran any commands touching those files
  • Whether CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR or your home directory changed (e.g. a new user profile, OneDrive folder redirection)

With that we can tell whether this was a config-file corruption, a config-directory change, or the model modifying its own settings.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

github-actions[bot] · 14 days ago

We weren't able to reproduce this. Could you provide steps to trigger the issue — what you ran, what happened, and what you expected? This issue will be closed automatically if there's no activity within 7 days.

grimdalltech · 10 days ago

this isn't a bug, it's a textbook confused deputy problem.

the agent has unrestricted fs access to %USERPROFILE%\.claude\. there is no policy enforcement point (pep) blocking it from modifying its own config, mcp servers, or api keys. when the planner hallucinates a "workspace cleanup", it just nukes its own trust boundary.

prompt rules like "don't delete settings" are just suggestions.

the fix is deterministic execution boundaries: ast-parse the shell payload and hard-block any writes to the agent's own config directory at the os layer. if an agent can delete its own security controls, you don't have a security model.

grimdalltech · 10 days ago

i maintain an open-source reference implementation of exactly this boundary model — deterministic pep + ast policy engine that hard-blocks writes to the agent's own config dir. linked on my profile if useful.