The document establishes a layered permission system in which Anthropic sets the outer bounds, operators can expand or restrict default behaviors within those bounds, and users can further adjust within the scope operators permit.
This analysis describes what Anthropic's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
This provision defines the operational permission architecture that governs what Claude will and will not do in any given deployment, making it the primary mechanism by which operators customize model behavior for their specific products and user bases.
Under this hierarchy, the behaviors available to a user of a Claude-powered product are determined by the operator's system prompt configuration, meaning two users on different platforms built on the same underlying model may experience substantially different capabilities and restrictions.
Cross-platform context
See how other platforms handle Operator and User Softcoded Permission Hierarchy and similar clauses.
Compare across platforms →"Operators can expand Claude's defaults for users, such as allowing Claude to produce adult-only content that it wouldn't produce by default... Operators can restrict Claude's defaults for users, such as preventing Claude from producing content that isn't related to their core use case.Excerpt from Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 5 System Card
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This provision defines the operational permission architecture that governs what Claude will and will not do in any given deployment, making it the primary mechanism by which operators customize model behavior for their specific products and user bases.
Under this hierarchy, the behaviors available to a user of a Claude-powered product are determined by the operator's system prompt configuration, meaning two users on different platforms built on the same underlying model may experience substantially different capabilities and restrictions.
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