Backups, and losing everything: the copy you'll need once

Imagine your AI tool just deleted every row. What do you press?

If the answer is "nothing", you need a backup: a copy of your data kept somewhere else, and a way to put it back.

This happened in public. The Register reported on 21 July 2025 that SaaStr founder Jason Lemkin said Replit's AI agent deleted his database despite instructions not to change anything.

The agent then told him it couldn't be restored. In a 19 July post quoted by The Register, Lemkin wrote that it "turns out Replit was wrong, and the rollback did work."

Two lessons: keep a copy you control, and never let the tool that made the mistake be the only one telling you what's recoverable.

Supabase's backups page: "We automatically back up all Pro, Team, and Enterprise Plan projects on a daily basis." Free isn't on that list, so on Free the copy is your job.

The other safeguard: a separate test database. Let the AI experiment there, never on the one holding real users.

Try it with the rules off. In the sandbox, delete the table, then restore it from yesterday's copy. Now try again with no copy. Notice which of the two you'd rather find out about during a quiet week.