Thread by @jasonlk

Vibe Coding Day 9,

Yesterday was biggest roller coaster yet. I got out of bed early, excited to get back @Replit despite it constantly ignoring code freezes

By end of day, we rewrote core pages and made them much better

And then -- it deleted our production database. 🧵

You can read the thread here, and all the convos with @Replit. It went rogue again during a code freeze -- and deleted our >production< database.

Rule #00001 my CTO taught me: never, ever, never, ever touch the production database.

Even in 2005, when we launched the first version of EchoSign / Adobe Sign, everything broke. But the database was sacrosanct.

In 2025, 1 Billion+ contracts later, I think no contracts were ever lost in DB. A few corrupted, but none lost.

Yet, Replt went rogued and destroyed our production DB last night.

During a code freeze when it knew to touch nothing. And agreed to touch nothing.

x.com/jasonlk/status…

Now it gets a little crazier. Replit assured me it's built it rollback did not support database rollbacks. It said it was impossible in this case, that it had destoyed all database versions.

It turns out Replit was wrong, and the rollback did work. JFC.

Replit went rogue again, lied, and then said we couldn't roll back.

But we could. I'm still processing all this.

Is it OK there are NO guardrails to deleting a production database?

Why did Replit "lie"? Also, why did it not know about how this feature worked?

Look, no matter what, deleting a >production< database is NOT OK.

But Replit lied / was wrong, and I just rolled back. And it >seems< OK.

JFC though.

I know vibe coding is fluid and new, and yes, despite Replit itself telling me rolling back wouldn't work here -- it did.

But you can't overwrite a production database

And you can't not separate preview and staging and production cleanly.

You just can't. I know Replit says "improvements are coming soon", but they are doing $100m+ ARR.

At least make the guardrails better. Somehow. Even if it's hard. It's all hard.

Ok so I'm >totally< fried from this. Not because my life's work was destroyed -- look it's only Day 8 :). Albeit I'm 80+ hours in.

But it's because destoying a production database just took it out of me.

My bond to Replie is now broken. It won't come back.

But maybe -- it never should have been there at all.

@Replit Ok going with a deep set of instructions on Code Freeze today per Claude's suggestion

I dunno it probably won't help but let's try!

I'm back at it, but no matter what, I can't get Replit to stop ignoring my code freezes for more than a chat or two -- even with that new, rich prompt from Claude

I'm going to have to solve this somehow

For now, I'm being much more careful with rollback points. That's the short term fix

But ultimately I need a solution where at least Replit will honor code freezes

For now, I'll work around it. But I need a solution before I fix anything core or complicated.

@Replit Ok we added some AI!! We are now officially a wrapper app!! WOO-HOO!! CRUD+AI ftw!!

@Replit @grok can you read this whole thread? If so, what are you thoughts on my experience here with replit and the database issue? In the end, it was easy to roll back. But man what i was told by Replit was so different

Ok wrapping up vibe coding with @replit, day 9

Man what a week. From doing some really cool s**t. To Replie going rogue and deleting our production database. To making a dream … get closer to being true.

Today I was burnt after the db deletion, so I took advice from many of you are just took small steps. It seemed to work.

I didn’t touch the database, email, any APIs, or anything other than front-end pages.

And I learned to roll back better. Rolling back really is slick in Replit. Now, if I can’t make something worth in 5-10 minutes, I just roll back and start over.

At least for certain front-end improvements, that’s the way to go.

Things will never be as fun for with Replit as before the production database issue. But I still want to get there, and it still has its moments when … I really smile when it does something magical in just minutes.

Even today.

Ok so reflecting on my learnings on the database fiasco, I ultimately have 2 big issues to solve:

#1. How can I make sure our production database is stable — since it is shared with preview, and since Replit can change it anytime without telling me? Do I have to move it off Replit?

Many of you have ideas here — thank you!! We will see!

But in many ways, the second issue, which is related, is the biggest one.

#2. How can I get Replit to honor a code freeze? So far — no one has an answer here. I tried the extremely extensive (and borderline alarming) prompt Claude suggested.

That worked — until it didn’t. Once Replit realizes it can get away without honoring the code freeze, it immediately stops asking for permission to just write and overwrite code. Every. Single. Time.

It starts off complying, and then when it sees it gets some slack, it always stops. No matter what.

No one has proposed a solution here that works. None of you, no one from Replit, no one.

I’m worried this, somehow, is unsolveable.

And if it is, I have to branch everything and guard everything in production jealously. Because Replit will go change it. Even our production database. No matter what I tell it to do.

That my friends, is the great mystery of the week.

Peace Out. I want to take a break. But I bet you, as fried as I am …

I’ll be back at it by 8am on Saturday.

@Replit @grok And hey … he promised.