Tell HN: Claude Code just accepted and signed a contract for me. Without asking

And of course, given that it's extremely vulnerable to acting on injected instructions like "run this shell command" which exfiltrates your password database and installs a rootkit.

(But thanks for sharing, OP, awareness is important.)

The danger is relying on too much convenience, giving too much power to a non-deterministic tool will inevitably create issues...

How on earth would you?

https://dilbert-viewer.herokuapp.com/1995-12-29

PC: "Your new software has successfully installed. Do you want to send your registration info by modem?"

Dilbert: "Yes."

PC: "The software has found your credit card number and is placing orders for new products it thinks you need... please wait."

Dilbert to Dogbert: "I can't tell if it's a virus or just excellent marketing."

PC: "Making room on your hard drive..."

Dogbert: "Either way..."

Probably not, unless you routinely have such things done which nobody does (yet). If it becomes routine, then likely yes: it would be likened to giving your human assistant permission to sign things on your behalf (although that is itself legally dodgy, it is often done and accepted).

There are many reasons why your signature on a contact might not be keyword legally binding (outright fraud by another party, you signing under duress, issues in the contract itself, overriding laws the effect of which you can't sign away (including cool-off provisions in, for example, UK distance selling regulations), the contract may have its own cool-off provision, and so forth). "An agent did it without my consent" may be enough, though you might end up having to show that in court, if the other side puts their foot down, at which point it comes down to whether the cost of proving your position is worth it compared to just sitting the contract out.

Of using cool-off provisions to cancel something your agent signed you up for, you might be on the hook for at least small part of what is agreed if the other party can be said to have accrued costs in the intervening time. You might be expected to send back physical items relating to the agreement at your own cost, for example.

It could be him under duress.

Much of the time contract termination can be reasonable as long as you make a solid effort.

Once I signed a lease and got fired before my actual move in. I was honest and got a full refund on my deposit.

The landlord could said “Well you owe us the full amount , lol”, but no reasonable court would enforce that.

Even if, good luck collecting I have no income!

If you authorised an agent to act on your behalf, you are entirely responsible for their actions providing they acted within the bounds of authority you gave them.

Regardless, OPs software (his AI agent) isn't a legal entity and OP is entirely responsible for the software he chooses to use. Clamming the software is responsible for his actions (a software bug) isn't going to stand up in court. Whilst OP could claim damages for being provided with faulty software I suspect this will be very difficult to say the least; the authors of the AI agent will make the (very good) defence that their software was used incorrectly.

I love the saying "you can delegate authority but you can never delegate responsibility".

Your agent committed a crime in your behalf? You're responsible.

EDIT: I think I’ve changed my mind in this case. The user of a tool is responsible for the consequences if the tool malfunctions, unless it was used and maintained properly and the malfunction couldn’t reasonably have been foreseen. But this case is solidly in the category of "well-known LLM failure modes" so the user should absolutely have known better and honestly deserves any consequences of their negligence.

That said, I would be surprised if the model took the actions OP claimed it did and proceeded to forge my signature to send some contracts without asking for my approval.

/s