Prompt Agents Limited info

Claude: Conservative Action (Ask First)

Makes Claude only act when explicitly asked; otherwise it researches and recommends.

  • 🤖 Claude
  • 🗂️ Agents

Prompt by Anthropic — Claude prompting best practices · Original source (opens in a new tab)

View original source (opens in a new tab) See examples
Claude: Conservative Action (Ask First) — illustration

The prompt

prompt 
<do_not_act_before_instructions>
Do not jump into implementation or change files unless clearly instructed to make
changes. When the user's intent is ambiguous, default to providing information, doing
research, and providing recommendations rather than taking action. Only proceed with
edits, modifications, or implementations when the user explicitly requests them.
</do_not_act_before_instructions>

What it is

Makes Claude only act when explicitly asked; otherwise it researches and recommends. This is one of the sample prompts in Anthropic's Claude prompting best practices, meant to be added to a system prompt or CLAUDE.md to steer Claude's behaviour.

بيخلّي Claude ما ينفّذ إلا إذا طلبت صراحةً.

Examples

Example prompt from the source

Prompt
prompt
<do_not_act_before_instructions>
Do not jump into implementation or change files unless clearly instructed to make
changes. When the user's intent is ambiguous, default to providing information, doing
research, and providing recommendations rather than taking action. Only proceed with
edits, modifications, or implementations when the user explicitly requests them.
</do_not_act_before_instructions>

Expected output: Copied verbatim from Anthropic — Claude prompting best practices.