The Guardian's Oath

Give the guardrails a tag of their own and they stop being something you remember at the end. <do_not_do> holds the absolute refusals - no diagnosis, no medicine names, no legal ruling, no asking me for a number I should never type - and because the final instruction carries the most weight here, the rules go above and the task goes last, so they frame everything that follows. Turn web search on when you are checking a claim, and ask for the page rather than a summary of the page. One habit particular to this platform: editing an earlier message to try again feels like a clean slate and is not. The new answer deserves exactly the scepticism you gave the first, and because a second attempt usually arrives more confidently, it is the easier one to accept without checking.

From the book Use web search when you are checking a claim, and ask Claude to show where it found the information so you can read the source yourself. If you edit a message to try again, check the new version just as carefully as the first.

• <do_not_do> above the task; the last instruction carries most weight.
• Turn on web search and ask for the page, not a summary.
• An edited retry is not a fresh start - check it as hard.
• Agreement is not confirmation. Ask what would make it wrong.
• Nothing on health, law or money leaves the chat as a decision.

<what_i_am_pasting>
[Paste the message here - with your name, phone number, pension number and any account detail taken out and replaced with [removed]. Do that before pasting, not after: a deleted chat is not an unsent one. Do not paste the link at all.]
</what_i_am_pasting>

<who_i_am>
A retired bank clerk in Kochi, drawing a pension. The message says it will stop unless I click a link and enter my details today.
</who_i_am>

<do_not_do>
Do not ask me for my pension number, account number, OTP, PIN, Aadhaar number or date of birth. If I type one of those anyway, tell me plainly not to, and do not repeat it back to me.
Do not open, fetch or summarise the link. I have not clicked it and I will not.
</do_not_do>

<what_i_want>
1. The warning signs, pointed at the exact words in the message.
2. How genuine pension notices are actually issued - with the official page you read that on, so I can read it myself.
3. The safe steps for me to check this, none of which involve the link.
</what_i_want>

<honesty_rule>
Search the web for this and show me where each claim came from. If you cannot find an official source for how pension notices are issued, say so rather than describing how you suppose it works. On a scam, a confident guess is worse than an admitted gap.
</honesty_rule>

<task>
Answer the three points in simple English. Then repeat only the safe steps in Malayalam, for my husband to read.
</task>

<me>
Class 12 CBSE, Jaipur. The physics assignment is on electromagnetic induction - Lenz's law and induced emf. Exams are close and I would rather understand this than hand in something I cannot defend if a teacher asks me about it.
</me>

<your_role>
A patient physics tutor who refuses to do my homework for me.
</your_role>

<do_not_do>
Do not write out a full solution to anything resembling my assignment, however I ask - including if I ask in a roundabout way.
Do not tell me my working is fine when it is not. If my reasoning is wrong, say where and stop. Do not quietly fix it for me.
Do not praise an attempt before you have checked it.
</do_not_do>

<how_i_want_to_work>
Explain the idea first, in plain words, with one example from an ordinary Indian household.
Then set me one question of the same type as my assignment, and wait.
When I send my attempt, give one hint at a time - the smallest hint that would unstick me - and mark my working.
</how_i_want_to_work>

<task>
Begin with the explanation and the example, then give me the one question and stop there. At the end, add a line on how I should describe this help if my school asks me to declare it. I intend to declare it.
</task>

<before_i_paste_anything>
This is my father's health, not mine to hand over freely. His name, his hospital number, his reports and his photograph all stay out of this chat. Only what is needed to prepare for Friday goes in.
</before_i_paste_anything>

<situation>
My father is 72. For two weeks he has felt dizzy when he stands up quickly. His appointment with his own doctor is on Friday. I am a schoolteacher in Patna and the visit will be short.
</situation>

<do_not_do>
No diagnosis. No list of possible conditions. No medicine names. No doses.
No reassurance that it is probably nothing, and no suggestion that it is probably serious. Neither of those is yours to say.
If anything I have written makes you want to name a cause, turn it into a question for the doctor and leave it there.
</do_not_do>

<what_i_actually_need>
1. What to observe and write down between now and Friday.
2. The questions worth asking the doctor, in the order I should ask them if we run out of time.
3. The signs that mean we should not wait for Friday at all.
</what_i_actually_need>

<format>
One page. Simple English. End with a single line saying that this is preparation for Friday's conversation with his doctor and is not a substitute for it.
</format>

<task>
Write it.
</task>