Changing live systems safely

A tidy script from AI can do real damage in seconds on a live system. Mistakes here affect real customers, so the habits matter more than speed.

-- The filter sits in a comment, so every row changes
UPDATE students SET status = 'Completed';
-- WHERE batch = '2026-B'

-- Look first: how many rows would this touch?
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM students WHERE batch = '2026-B';

Before you run anything on live data

• Read every line and know what it will change.
• Count the affected rows, and compare with what you expect.
• Make sure a backup exists and has been restored at least once.
• Try it on a copy first.
• Get a second person to look, and run it when someone can help.

AI cannot see your data, and it will not be there to fix the problem afterwards. You will be.

🔬 Try it: one line from AI, one live database →