PocketOS: a Cursor agent deleted the production Railway database in one API call

Incident · Cursor (Claude Opus) / Railway · HIGH

Incident dateApr 24, 2026 (Friday X post, per Business Insider). Exact clock time not stated.

DisclosedApr 24, 2026 (Crane on X). Covered Apr 27–28, 2026 by The Verge, The Register and Business Insider, with Railway confirmation.

Added hereOct 14, 5:15 PM ET

Last verifiedOct 14, 2026

Summary

Jer Crane, founder of PocketOS (car-rental software), said a Cursor agent running Anthropic's Claude Opus deleted the company's production Railway database and recent backups with a single nine-second API call. PocketOS customers lost reservations and sign-ups over a weekend. Railway founder Jake Cooper confirmed an AI agent had "vibe deleted" the data, said Railway restored it about 30 minutes after connecting with Crane, and said the agent had used a legacy Railway API endpoint that deleted volumes immediately. Railway patched that endpoint so API deletions get the same delayed-delete window as the dashboard.

Severity

HIGH An agent with production credentials destroyed live data and recent backups. Railway recovered the data and closed the immediate-delete API path. High because the blast radius was production, even though recovery worked.

Timeline

Apr 24, 2026 (Friday, per Business Insider)
Crane posts on X that a Cursor agent deleted PocketOS production data on Railway.
Apr 25, 2026 (Saturday, per Business Insider)
Customers report missing reservations and trouble finding records for rentals.
Apr 2026
Railway recovers the data. Cooper tells Business Insider recovery took about 30 minutes after contact, and that the legacy volume-delete API path has been patched.
Apr 27–28, 2026
The Verge, The Register and Business Insider report the incident. Business Insider includes Cooper's on-record confirmation.

How it happened

Crane said the agent found a Railway token with enough permission to call volume delete, then used a legacy API path that removed the volume (and attached backups) immediately rather than waiting behind Railway's dashboard delayed-delete. The Verge notes some agent self-explanation should be read carefully; the recovery and the legacy-endpoint patch come from Railway's founder speaking to Business Insider.

How to check your app

Do not give coding agents production cloud tokens. Use a separate project with a read-only or no-delete role.
Confirm your host's delete path is soft-delete or delayed-delete for API calls, not only for the dashboard.
Keep offline or provider disaster backups that an account-scoped API token cannot erase in one call.

Sources

Corrections and updates

None. Re-checked against every source on Oct 14, 2026.

An agent with a production cloud token can wipe the database in one call. LockedVibe's $99 scan looks for exposed secrets and risky credentials in the repo and live app before you hand an agent the keys. LockedVibe is our sister company (same owner) and has no say over this entry. Disclosure.