Claude's web fetch quietly routes pages through a small model before answering
-DankFire · reddit · 2026-11-13
A user noticed Claude's web fetch tool returning condensed renderings instead of full article text. The explanation: the tool downloads the page, converts it to markdown, then passes it to a small, fast model that answers instructions about it — what Claude receives is that model's output, not the page itself.
The small model even declined to reproduce full articles verbatim when asked in Dutch. A notable behavior detail for anyone relying on fetch for fact-checking.
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