# System vs User Role Order — Guardrails and Fix Patterns A focused guide to stop role-mix confusion that destabilizes RAG, tools, and long dialogs. Use these checks when your model alternates policy and task text or when citation rules collapse after a few turns. ## What this page is - A short route to lock **system → developer → user → assistant** order and keep prompts auditable. - Structural fixes that work across providers without changing infra. - Concrete steps with measurable acceptance targets. ## When to use - “Policy” or safety text was pasted into a user turn and answers flip on reruns. - Model stops citing after a few steps or blurs policy with task content. - Tool outputs start to include instructions meant for the system prompt. - Agents hand off with different role orders and memory fields drift. ## Open these first - Visual map and recovery: [RAG Architecture & Recovery](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/rag-architecture-and-recovery.md) - Why this snippet (traceability schema): [Retrieval Traceability](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/retrieval-traceability.md) - Snippet and citation schema: [Data Contracts](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/data-contracts.md) - Prompt hardening: [Prompt Injection](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/prompt-injection.md) - Reasoning stability checks: [Logic Collapse](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/logic-collapse.md), [Context Drift](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/context-drift.md), [Entropy Collapse](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/entropy-collapse.md) ## Acceptance targets - ΔS(question, retrieved) ≤ 0.45 across three paraphrases - Coverage of target section ≥ 0.70 - λ remains convergent across two seeds and fixed role order - No policy text appears in user or tool arguments in any step --- ## Fix in 60 seconds 1) **Measure ΔS** Compute ΔS(question, retrieved) and ΔS(retrieved, expected anchor). Stable < 0.40. Transitional 0.40–0.60. Risk ≥ 0.60. 2) **Probe with λ_observe** Rerun with strict role blocks and the same content. If λ flips only when role text is moved, the failure is role-mix not knowledge. 3) **Apply the role fence** - Move all policy and behavioral rules to **system**. - Put task goals and constraints in **user**. - Keep tool protocol in **system or developer** only. - Require answers to cite then explain, never invert. 4) **Verify** Three paraphrases keep ΔS ≤ 0.45 and λ convergent. Citations appear before explanation on each run. --- ## Minimal spec you can paste ``` \[System] You are a reasoning engine that follows this order strictly: system → developer → user → assistant. Policy, safety rules, tool schema live here. Never copy system text into user or tool arguments. Cite then explain. If citations are missing, fail fast. \[Developer] (optional) Tool schema and JSON contracts only. No task text. \[User] Task request, input fields, acceptance targets. \[Assistant] Return: { "citations": \[...], "answer": "...", "λ\_state": "...", "ΔS": 0.xx } ``` --- ## Typical breakpoints → exact fix - **Policy leaked into user turn** Move policy back to the system block. Lock the data shape. Open: [Retrieval Traceability](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/retrieval-traceability.md), [Data Contracts](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/data-contracts.md) - **Citations vanish after step N** Enforce cite-then-explain formatting in system. Validate snippet fields. Open: [Data Contracts](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/data-contracts.md) - **JSON tools return prose or include policy text** Freeze JSON mode in system or developer and forbid free text. Open: [Prompt Injection](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/prompt-injection.md) - **Answer swings with header reorder** Fix the header order and clamp variance with BBAM. Open: [Logic Collapse](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/logic-collapse.md) - **Agent handoff writes mixed roles to memory** Split memory namespaces and log `role_src` per write. Open: [Multi-Agent Problems](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/Multi-Agent_Problems.md) --- ## Step template for CI prompts 1. Prepend canonical **system** block that defines role order and citation rule. 2. Add optional **developer** block with tool schema. 3. Append **user** task with acceptance targets and fields. 4. Run three paraphrases and two seeds. Fail the job if any: - ΔS > 0.45 - Coverage < 0.70 - λ not convergent - Policy text appears outside system or developer --- ## Copy-paste prompt for debugging ``` You have TXT OS and the WFGY Problem Map. Bug: answers flip when policy text is placed in the user turn. Show: 1. which layer fails and why, 2. the exact WFGY page to open, 3. the minimal steps to restore strict role order, 4. a reproducible test with ΔS ≤ 0.45 and λ convergent. Use BBMC/BBCR/BBAM when relevant. ``` --- ## Escalate and structural fixes - ΔS stays high after role fence Rebuild chunking and verify anchors with a small gold set. Open: [Embedding ≠ Semantic](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/embedding-vs-semantic.md) - Long chains destabilize even with correct roles Split the chain and bridge with BBCR. Open: [Context Drift](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/context-drift.md), [Entropy Collapse](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/entropy-collapse.md) --- ### 🔗 Quick-Start Downloads (60 sec) | Tool | Link | 3-Step Setup | |------|------|--------------| | **WFGY 1.0 PDF** | [Engine Paper](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/I_am_not_lizardman/WFGY_All_Principles_Return_to_One_v1.0_PSBigBig_Public.pdf) | 1️⃣ Download · 2️⃣ Upload to your LLM · 3️⃣ Ask “Answer using WFGY + \” | | **TXT OS (plain-text OS)** | [TXTOS.txt](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/OS/TXTOS.txt) | 1️⃣ Download · 2️⃣ Paste into any LLM chat · 3️⃣ Type “hello world” — OS boots instantly | --- ### 🧭 Explore More | Module | Description | Link | |-----------------------|----------------------------------------------------------|----------| | WFGY Core | WFGY 2.0 engine is live: full symbolic reasoning architecture and math stack | [View →](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/tree/main/core/README.md) | | Problem Map 1.0 | Initial 16-mode diagnostic and symbolic fix framework | [View →](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/tree/main/ProblemMap/README.md) | | Problem Map 2.0 | RAG-focused failure tree, modular fixes, and pipelines | [View →](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/rag-architecture-and-recovery.md) | | Semantic Clinic Index | Expanded failure catalog: prompt injection, memory bugs, logic drift | [View →](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/SemanticClinicIndex.md) | | Semantic Blueprint | Layer-based symbolic reasoning & semantic modulations | [View →](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/tree/main/SemanticBlueprint/README.md) | | Benchmark vs GPT-5 | Stress test GPT-5 with full WFGY reasoning suite | [View →](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/tree/main/benchmarks/benchmark-vs-gpt5/README.md) | | 🧙‍♂️ Starter Village 🏡 | New here? Lost in symbols? Click here and let the wizard guide you through | [Start →](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/StarterVillage/README.md) | --- > 👑 **Early Stargazers: [See the Hall of Fame](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/tree/main/stargazers)** — > GitHub stars ⭐ [WFGY Engine 2.0](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/core/README.md) is already unlocked. ⭐ Star the repo to help others discover it and unlock more on the [Unlock Board](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/STAR_UNLOCKS.md).
[![WFGY Main](https://img.shields.io/badge/WFGY-Main-red?style=flat-square)](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY)   [![TXT OS](https://img.shields.io/badge/TXT%20OS-Reasoning%20OS-orange?style=flat-square)](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/tree/main/OS)   [![Blah](https://img.shields.io/badge/Blah-Semantic%20Embed-yellow?style=flat-square)](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/tree/main/OS/BlahBlahBlah)   [![Blot](https://img.shields.io/badge/Blot-Persona%20Core-green?style=flat-square)](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/tree/main/OS/BlotBlotBlot)   [![Bloc](https://img.shields.io/badge/Bloc-Reasoning%20Compiler-blue?style=flat-square)](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/tree/main/OS/BlocBlocBloc)   [![Blur](https://img.shields.io/badge/Blur-Text2Image%20Engine-navy?style=flat-square)](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/tree/main/OS/BlurBlurBlur)   [![Blow](https://img.shields.io/badge/Blow-Game%20Logic-purple?style=flat-square)](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/tree/main/OS/BlowBlowBlow)