Claude Constitution

Anthropic publishes Claude's Constitution as the foundational statement of the values it wants Claude to embody, together with the reasoning behind them. The document covers how Claude can be helpful while remaining safe and ethical, and gives guidance for difficult tradeoffs between those aims.

Because the reasoning is published alongside the values, users and developers get a reference for why Claude is meant to respond as it does. Anthropic presents the release as transparency into how it guides Claude's development. The document states intended values, so it is a standard for judging responses rather than proof that every response meets it. The current version dates from January 2026, and Anthropic says it will archive earlier versions as the document changes.

“This repository contains Claude's Constitution—the foundational document that describes the values we want Claude to embody and the reasoning behind them.”

“It covers what it means for Claude to be helpful while remaining safe and ethical, and provides guidance for navigating difficult tradeoffs.”

“We're releasing it to provide transparency into how we guide Claude's development.”