AI mechanics

System Prompt

The provider's own hidden instructions, sent before your first word.

Every assistant app wraps its model in instructions written by the company that made it: what it will and will not do, how it talks, how cautious it is.

You never see them and you cannot edit them. When a tool behaves in a way you did not ask for, this layer is usually why. Your own instructions sit underneath it, and knowing which one wins is the authority hierarchy.

Also called: provider instructions, hidden prompt, authority hierarchy, guardrails.

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Learn this in AI 101

0.4The model comes with its own instructions
2.1The authority hierarchy.
2.2System instructions: the invisible first turn.