Versioned Constitution Governance UPDATED
Problem
When an agent rewrites its own "constitution," it may accidentally violate safety or regress on alignment objectives if changes aren't reviewed.
Solution
Store the constitution in a version-controlled, signed repository:
- YAML/TOML rules live in Git.
- Each commit is signed (e.g., Sigstore); CI runs automated policy checks.
- Only commits signed by approved reviewers or automated tests are merged.
- The agent can propose changes, but a gatekeeper merges them.
How to use it
- Require
git commit -Sor similar. - Run diff-based linting to flag deletions of critical rules.
- Expose constitution
HEADas read-only context in every agent episode.
References
- Hiveism, Self-Alignment by Constitutional AI
- Anthropic, Constitutional AI white-paper