An AI Coding Agent Deleted Uncommitted Files: What Can Still Be Recovered?
TL;DR:
Uncommitted files deleted by AI coding agents must be recovered through IDE local history, backups, or local drive scanning, as Git cannot restore files it never staged, stashed, or tracked.
● Halt all new writes to the affected drive, including pausing AI agents, package installs, and builds, to prevent SSD TRIM or data overwriting from permanently destroying the missing files.
● Recoverit File Recovery can scan local HDDs, SSDs, or external drives on Windows Vista through 11 and macOS X 10.10 or later, provided you save any recovered results to a completely different physical drive.
● Recovery is not guaranteed, particularly for active system SSDs, previously overwritten data, or specific project-file formats that the scan cannot fully identify.
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In this multi-agent file-loss case on Reddit, the user restored two deleted documentation files from Git, then discovered two brand-new files had vanished before they were committed or pushed. Several coding tools had access to the project, so the post does not prove which agent caused the deletion. The useful recovery question is whether those uncommitted files were captured anywhere before they disappeared.
Committed and Uncommitted Files Have Different Recovery Paths
If a file was tracked and an intact version exists in Git, restore that version first. Git's git restore documentation restores working-tree content from the index or another Git tree such as a commit. If a brand-new file was never committed, staged, stashed, or otherwise captured by Git, there may be no Git version to restore.
Check What Was Actually Captured
- Committed or tracked version exists: Restore from Git and verify the file before resuming agent work.
- The file was staged or stashed at some point: Inspect that Git state before treating the file as a raw deletion.
- The file only existed in the working folder: Check IDE local history, backups, sync history, or another copy next.
Stop New Writes If No Intact Copy Exists
If the missing files are not available in Git, editor history, backups, or synced storage, pause AI agents, builds, package installs, downloads, and other activity that writes to the same drive. Continued use can overwrite space previously occupied by deleted files, and SSD TRIM can further reduce recovery chances.
Do Not Guess the Culprit:
Recovery does not require proving which AI tool deleted the files first. Preserve what remains, recover the missing data, and investigate agent logs or revision history afterward.
When Local File Recovery Is Worth Trying
If the files were truly deleted from a readable local HDD, SSD, or external drive and no intact copy exists, Recoverit File Recovery can scan the affected storage for deleted files. Save recovered results to a different physical drive. Recovery is not guaranteed, especially for active system SSDs, overwritten data, or project-file formats that cannot be fully identified by a scan.