Analysis of System Prompt Changes Between Claude Opus 4.6 and 4.7 Models
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Summary
This article analyzes the changes in system prompts between Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.6 and 4.7 models, examining how Anthropic's approach to AI safety and behavior has evolved. The author uses Claude Code to compare the Markdown versions of system prompts from Anthropic's public archive, which dates back to Claude 3 in July 2024. The analysis reveals subtle but significant changes in how Anthropic frames Claude's identity, capabilities, and safety guidelines between the two versions, providing insights into the company's evolving AI development philosophy.
Key quotes
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Their system prompt archive now dates all the way back to Claude 3 in July 2024 and it's always interesting to see how the system prompt evolves as they publish new models.
Opus 4.7 shipped the other day (April 16, 2026) with a Claude.ai system prompt update since Opus 4.6 (February 5, 2026).
I had Claude Code take the Markdown version of their system prompts, break that up into separate documents for each of the models and then construct a Git history of those files over time.
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