I Built an AI Agent That Governs Itself — Separation of Powers for LLMs

Most AI agents today work like interns with root access — powerful but ungoverned. They can call any tool, access any file, and execute any command. We trust them because... well, we hope the LLM "knows better." I didn't like that. So I built LawClaw — an AI agent governed by a separation of powers framework, inspired by constitutional law. The Problem Every AI agent framework I've seen treats governance as an afterthought: "Just add a system prompt telling it not to do bad things" "Use a content filter on the output" "Hope the model is aligned enough" This is like running a country with no laws, no courts, and no constitution — just a king who promises to be good. The Architecture: Three Branches of Power LawClaw implements three distinct governance layers: 1. Constitution (Immutable Rules) A constitution.md file that cannot be modified by the agent itself. It defines: Fundamental rights of the owner Boundaries of power (what the agent SHALL NOT do) Resource limits (execution timeouts