Research
Configuration, Not Conscience: A Large-Scale Empirical Study of LLM System Prompts
Publication date unknown · Discovered arxiv.org
Page published
Publication date unknown · First observed: 24 Oct 2026
Coverage timeline
Single-source research — one report is available.
Why it matters
System-prompt reuse and maintenance debt deserve security review because these instructions govern tool access, file safety, and other operational controls in LLM applications.
“Configuration, Not Conscience” analyzes 407 leaked, reconstructed, or officially published system prompts from 62 vendors, finding that operational instructions dominate safety-policy text and documenting prompt reuse and maintenance debt. The study frames system prompts as operational configuration with engineering and supply-chain implications, while cautioning that corpus provenance and simple classifiers make its measurements directional.