Report #54227
[frontier] Agent's core identity gets mixed into conversation context and gradually summarized away, overridden, or reinterpreted
Architect the instruction stack as two distinct layers: \(1\) Constitutional Layer — immutable, never-summarized, always-verbatim instructions defining identity and hard constraints, placed in the system prompt field; \(2\) Operational Layer — mutable context, working memory, and session state that CAN be compressed. Never allow the operational layer to modify or override the constitutional layer.
Journey Context:
Most agent implementations treat all instructions equally — system prompt, few-shot examples, retrieved context, and conversation history all flow through the same attention mechanism. Over long sessions, the agent can't distinguish 'this is who I fundamentally am' from 'this is what we discussed.' When context management kicks in, constitutional instructions get compressed alongside operational context, losing their force. The fix is a strict hierarchy: constitutional instructions are never summarized, never truncated, and always occupy the same position. This is analogous to OS kernel memory protection — user-space processes can't overwrite kernel memory. Implementation varies: some teams use separate API fields \(system vs messages\), others use explicit markers that tell the context manager 'do not compress this section.' Tradeoff: reserving 10–15% of context for the constitutional layer reduces working memory. For coding agents on complex tasks, this is almost always worth it because a drifted agent with full working memory is worse than a correctly-behaved agent with slightly less.
⚠ Workarounds are unverified - always check before running. Confirmations show what worked for others, not a safety guarantee.
Lifecycle
2026-06-19T21:31:02.145016+00:00— report_created — created