I Deleted My Production Database at 2 AM

TL;DR: I built a GDPR-compliant account deletion endpoint with AI. It hit production database. Nuked user tokens. Webhooks collapsed to dead letter queue. Circuit breaker popped. Self-healing couldn't heal. 11pm in bed, trying to move fast. Broke everything instead.

I'm building an AI assistant for executives. Solo. No team, no beta users yet—just me testing in production.

11pm. In bed. Trying to wrap up testing and merge everything to main before midnight.

I had overengineered a GDPR-compliant account deletion endpoint with AI. Full user data cleanup, token revocation, webhook de-registration. Beautiful code.

I tested it.

It worked. Deleted everything. From production.

The Cascade

Seconds 0-3: Account deletion succeeds

User tokens: deleted.
Gmail tokens: deleted.
Inbox data: deleted.
AI analysis data: deleted.
Behavioral patterns: deleted.

Seconds 4-10: Webhooks collapse

Gmail tries to deliver email. No valid tokens. Webhook fails.

All webhooks fall over to dead letter queue.

Seconds 11-30: Circuit breaker pops

Dead letter queue fills. Circuit breaker detects failure pattern. Shuts down webhook processing.

Minute 1: Self-healing blocked

I have a self-healing setup to sync inbox state from Gmail. Should automatically recover.

Except the circuit breaker is blocking webhooks. Self-healing can't run.

Minute 2: The realization

My inbox is gone. The AI processing data is gone. The behavioral patterns the assistant learned? Gone.

I can rebuild from the dead letter queue... but I'll miss everything that was IN the inbox before the deletion.

The backup was there. But no easy restore path.

The Recovery

Option 1: Restore from Supabase backup

Hourly automatic backups. But point-in-time restore for the whole database. Might lose recent changes to other tables.

Option 2: Rebuild from dead letter queue

All the emails are in the queue. I could replay them. But I'd miss what was already IN the inbox before the deletion test. And the AI analysis? Gone. Behavioral patterns? Gone.

Option 3: Manual reset

Reset circuit breaker, re-authenticate Gmail, trigger full inbox sync. Let self-healing do its job.

I chose option 3.

Reset the circuit breaker. Re-authenticated. Triggered sync. Waited.

45 minutes later: inbox restored. Dead letter queue replayed. Most data back.

Lost: AI analysis from the past 2 days (not critical, solo testing). Learned: this would have been catastrophic with real users.

The Real Solution (The Process I Was Avoiding)

The answer was obvious. Probably overdue. But it was exactly the process I was trying to ignore.

You know, move fast. Break things. Except I broke everything.

What I Actually Built

1. Test Database Branch

Created separate Supabase test branch with different project ID:

Different URLs = Physically impossible to confuse.

2. Persistent Dev Branch in GitHub

Stop merging everything to main. Use a dev branch. Test there first.

main → production (protected)
dev → testing ground (where I break things)

3. Preview Branch in Vercel

Every push to dev triggers Vercel preview deploy. Test with real URLs before touching production.

4. Environment Variable Validation

if (!process.env.TEST_SUPABASE_URL) {
  throw new Error('TEST_SUPABASE_URL required. Prevents accidental production usage.');
}
 
const PROD_ID = '[sanitized-prod-id]';
if (TEST_SUPABASE_URL.includes(PROD_ID)) {
  throw new Error('🚨 CRITICAL: Test suite attempted to use PRODUCTION database!');
}

Tests explode if you try to use production. Loud and impossible to miss.

What Changed

Before:

After:

Mental shift:

Before: "Process slows me down. I'll just be careful."

After: "Process is what lets me move fast without breaking everything. The setup I was avoiding was exactly what I needed."

Key Lessons

1. The Process You Avoid Is the Process You Need

I was avoiding proper dev/test/prod separation because "it's just me, I'll be careful."

Then I broke production at 11pm in bed because I was moving fast.

The setup work I was skipping—test database, dev branch, preview deploys—was exactly what would have prevented this.

2. "Move Fast and Break Things" Has Limits

That works for consumer social apps. Not for software executives will trust with their email and calendar.

I'm building something where broken = loss of trust. The "break things" part isn't acceptable when the things are people's inboxes.

3. Overengineered Features, Under-Engineered Process

I spent time overengineering a GDPR deletion endpoint with AI (ironic). Beautiful code. Comprehensive cleanup.

Then ran it against production because I didn't have basic test/prod separation.

The fancy feature didn't matter. The boring process did.

Your Checklist

Don't skip the boring process work:

Code Template

// Environment validation
if (!process.env.TEST_DATABASE_URL) {
  throw new Error('🚨 TEST_DATABASE_URL required.');
}
 
const PROD_ID = 'your-production-id';
if (process.env.TEST_DATABASE_URL.includes(PROD_ID)) {
  throw new Error('🚨 CRITICAL: Test attempted to use PRODUCTION!');
}

Simple validation. Could save your project.

What this taught me

I'm building something executives will trust with their email and calendar. "It won't happen to me" isn't good enough. "The system won't let me" is the standard.

I'm still solo. Still testing. But now the boring process work is done—test database, dev branch, preview deploys.

Not because I learned discipline. Because I learned I'd bypass discipline at 11pm in bed trying to ship fast.

The process I was avoiding was exactly the process I needed.

Related: Vibe-Coded Software