Claude New Constitution

Anthropic's January 2026 constitution for Claude is meant to do two jobs: describe the behavior and values the company wants, and serve as material used in training. According to the announcement, Claude itself uses the document to generate synthetic training data, including conversations where it might be relevant, responses in line with its values, and rankings of possible responses, which can be used to train future versions.

Anthropic says the revision explains the reasons behind its principles rather than listing standalone rules, because it wants models to apply broad principles in unfamiliar situations. It says publishing the document lets people tell which Claude behaviors are intended and which are not. Anthropic also acknowledges that Claude's outputs might not always adhere to the constitution's ideals.