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Leaked System Prompts From Major AI Players: Learn How to Use Their Techniques to Get the Most Out of Your AI Projects

The leaked system prompts repository on GitHub has become an invaluable resource for understanding how major AI companies design their conversational interfaces. With over 13,000 stars and contributions from 40+ contributors, this collection reveals the foundational instructions that shape how ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and other leading AI services interact with users.

What Are System Prompts and Why Do They Matter?

System prompts are the hidden instructions embedded within AI models that define their behavior, personality, tone, and operational guidelines. Think of them as the "DNA" of an AI assistant—they determine how the model interprets user requests, what tone it uses, and how it handles edge cases.

For AI developers and organizations implementing AI solutions, understanding these prompts is like having access to the playbook used by the most successful AI products in the world. These aren't theoretical frameworks—they're battle-tested instructions that have been refined through millions of user interactions.

What the Repository Reveals

The repository contains leaked system prompts from major AI players including:

  • Anthropic Claude (multiple versions: Opus, Sonnet, Haiku, 3.5 Sonnet)
  • OpenAI ChatGPT (various iterations)
  • Google Gemini and related services
  • xAI Grok (Grok2, Grok3)
  • Perplexity AI
  • Phind
  • v0 (Vercel's AI design tool)
  • And many more specialized AI services

Each prompt reveals unique design philosophies and approaches to AI interaction design.

Key Patterns from Major AI Players

1. Clear Role Definition

Major AI services excel at clearly defining the AI's role and capabilities. For example, Claude's prompts often establish the assistant as a "helpful, harmless, and honest" entity with specific boundaries. This clarity helps users understand what to expect and prevents misuse.

Takeaway for Your Implementation: Start your system prompt with a clear, concise statement of your AI's purpose, capabilities, and limitations.

2. Ethical Guidelines and Safety

Every major AI service includes extensive ethical guidelines in their system prompts. These cover topics like:

  • Refusing harmful requests
  • Handling sensitive information
  • Maintaining user privacy
  • Avoiding bias and discrimination

Takeaway for Your Implementation: Don't treat ethics as an afterthought. Build safety and ethical considerations directly into your system prompt from the start.

3. Structured Response Formatting

Leading AI services use their system prompts to enforce consistent formatting, which improves readability and user experience. This includes:

  • Clear section headers
  • Bullet points for lists
  • Code blocks with proper syntax highlighting
  • Structured data presentation

Takeaway for Your Implementation: Define formatting guidelines in your system prompt to ensure consistent, professional outputs.

4. Context Awareness and Memory Management

Sophisticated system prompts include instructions for:

  • Maintaining conversation context
  • Remembering user preferences
  • Handling multi-turn conversations
  • Managing conversation history efficiently

Takeaway for Your Implementation: Design your prompt to explicitly handle context management, especially for enterprise applications where conversations may span multiple sessions.

5. Domain-Specific Expertise

Specialized AI services (like v0 for design, or Perplexity for search) use system prompts to establish deep domain expertise. Their prompts include:

  • Specific knowledge domains
  • Preferred information sources
  • Domain-specific terminology
  • Industry best practices

Takeaway for Your Implementation: If you're building a specialized AI (e.g., for finance, healthcare, or legal), embed domain expertise directly in your system prompt.

How to Use These Prompts as Examples

Study the Structure

  1. Read Multiple Prompts: Compare prompts from different services to identify common patterns and unique approaches.
  2. Analyze the Flow: Notice how prompts are organized—what comes first, what's emphasized, what's de-emphasized.
  3. Identify Core Principles: Extract the fundamental principles that appear across multiple prompts.

Adapt, Don't Copy

While these prompts are excellent references, you should:

  • Customize for Your Use Case: Your AI's purpose is unique—adapt the structure to fit your specific needs.
  • Reflect Your Brand: Incorporate your organization's values, tone, and communication style.
  • Test and Iterate: Use these as starting points, then refine based on user feedback and performance metrics.

Key Elements to Include in Your System Prompt

Based on patterns from major AI services, your system prompt should include:

  1. Identity and Role: Who is the AI, and what is its primary function?
  2. Capabilities: What can the AI do? What are its limitations?
  3. Tone and Style: How should the AI communicate? (Professional, friendly, technical, etc.)
  4. Ethical Guidelines: What should the AI refuse to do? How should it handle sensitive topics?
  5. Response Format: How should outputs be structured?
  6. Context Handling: How should the AI manage conversation history and context?
  7. Error Handling: How should the AI respond when it doesn't know something or encounters an error?

Real-World Implementation Strategies

For Enterprise AI Applications

When implementing AI for enterprise use (like wealth management, financial services, or family offices), consider:

  • Compliance and Regulatory Alignment: Include instructions about regulatory compliance, data privacy (GDPR, CCPA), and industry-specific requirements.
  • Integration Instructions: Define how the AI should interact with existing systems (CRM, databases, APIs).
  • Audit Trail Requirements: Include instructions for logging and auditability.
  • Escalation Protocols: Define when and how to escalate to human agents.

For Customer-Facing Applications

For customer service or public-facing AI:

  • Brand Voice: Ensure the AI reflects your brand's personality and values.
  • User Experience: Prioritize clarity, helpfulness, and user satisfaction.
  • Multi-language Support: If applicable, include instructions for handling multiple languages.
  • Accessibility: Consider users with disabilities in your prompt design.

The Significance for AI Development

This repository represents more than just leaked secrets—it's a masterclass in AI interaction design. By studying these prompts, developers can:

  1. Learn from the Best: See how industry leaders solve common AI interaction challenges.
  2. Avoid Common Pitfalls: Understand what doesn't work by seeing what major services avoid.
  3. Accelerate Development: Use proven patterns instead of starting from scratch.
  4. Improve User Experience: Implement UX patterns that have been validated at scale.

Ethical Considerations

While studying these prompts is valuable, it's important to:

  • Respect Intellectual Property: Use these as learning resources, not to directly copy proprietary systems.
  • Focus on Principles: Extract principles and patterns rather than copying exact implementations.
  • Contribute Back: If you discover improvements or new patterns, consider contributing to the open-source community.

Next Steps for Your AI Implementation

Ready to craft system prompts for your AI implementation? Here's a practical approach:

  1. Review the Repository: Explore prompts from services similar to what you're building.
  2. Identify Key Patterns: Note common structures, safety measures, and formatting approaches.
  3. Draft Your Prompt: Create a first version incorporating relevant patterns.
  4. Test and Refine: Iterate based on real user interactions and feedback.
  5. Monitor and Update: System prompts should evolve as your AI learns and your use case develops.

Conclusion

The leaked system prompts repository offers unprecedented insight into how the world's most successful AI services are designed. By studying these prompts, developers and organizations can learn from industry leaders and apply proven patterns to their own AI implementations.

Whether you're building a customer service chatbot, an enterprise AI assistant, or a specialized domain expert, these prompts provide a blueprint for success. The key is to understand the principles behind them and adapt them to your unique use case, brand, and requirements.

The future of AI development isn't about reinventing the wheel—it's about learning from the best and building on proven foundations. The leaked system prompts repository gives us that foundation.

Ready to implement AI solutions for your organization? We specialize in adapting proven AI patterns to enterprise environments, including Microsoft Azure implementations. Contact us to discuss how we can help you build AI solutions using industry best practices.