Add account-state-dependent containers (<user_preferences>, <project_instructions>) and complete Section 20 enumeration#104
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…instructions>) and complete Section 20 enumeration - New Sections 21–22: <user_preferences> and <project_instructions> containers (verified via direct introspection on Opus 4.7 Cowork desktop, 2026-04-26) - Section 20: enumeration completed with MEMORY.md and userEmail; closing relevance disclaimer scope clarified Empirical follow-up: https://github.com/SsuHan-Liu/claude-instruction-containers
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This PR updates
Anthropic/claude-cowork.mdwith three additions verified via direct introspection on Opus 4.7 Cowork desktop, 2026-04-26.1. Two account-state-dependent containers (new Sections 21 and 22)
<user_preferences>(snake_case) and<project_instructions>are present in Cowork's system prompt body when the user has Profile preferences or Project Instructions configured. Both are absent when those settings are empty — which likely explains why these containers were not captured in the existing extraction (or inEliFuzz/awesome-system-prompts/leaks/anthropic/2026-01-16_prompt_cowork.md, wheregrepforuser_preferences/userPreferences/project_instructionsreturns 0 hits).2. Section 20 enumeration completed
The existing enumeration listed
claudeMd + currentDate + Runtime Skills Listas the contents of the runtime<system-reminder>block. The block also containsMEMORY.mdcontent and# userEmail. Both are now listed. The closing relevance disclaimer's coverage scope is also clarified (it wraps the entire block, not just any single component).3. Methodological note
I appended the new sections at the end of the file (Sections 21–22) rather than inserting between current Sections 10 and 11 (where they belong positionally) to keep the diff minimal. Happy to renumber and reposition if preferred — just let me know.
Empirical follow-up
A behavioural A/B study comparing chat (with
<preferences_info>meta-rule) and Cowork (without) on Opus 4.7 confirms the structural difference produces visible behaviour change in clean environment, including thinking-trace evidence of Claude applying the meta-rule's case logic at runtime. Full protocol, raw transcripts, and grep evidence: https://github.com/SsuHan-Liu/claude-instruction-containersSide note (for your awareness, not part of this PR's scope):
The TOC entry
20.1 Runtime Skills List(line 116 of current main) points to a#201-runtime-skills-listanchor that has no matching sub-header in the body. Likely a stale entry. I left it alone since fixing it is outside this PR's scope, but flagging in case you'd like to address separately.