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Sweep 02 Oct 2026 · 18:55Z Build v2.1.288 509 read Stable v2.1.285 Latest v2.1.287 Next v2.1.288 Feeds RSS JSON llms.txt llms-full.txt Unofficial

Claude Code v2.1.288 ·

Clearer PDF guidance for models that cannot take a whole PDF

When a model cannot accept a whole PDF, Claude is now told to read specific pages with the Read tool's pages option instead of retrying

Group of 2 You'll notice Improvements
JSON All of v2.1.288
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2Signal: worth watching, 1 to 5
AttachmentsArea: what it touches
ImprovementsKind: in v2.1.288,
ImprovementsSection of the release

What

Some models cannot be sent a PDF file as a whole, only its pages as images. Two messages Claude sees now account for this:

  • When a document is removed because the model does not accept whole PDFs, the replacement text now says so ("[Document removed: this model does not accept whole PDF documents.") and tells Claude to read specific pages using the pages option of the Read tool, and not to re-read the file without pages. Before, a generic "Document/Image removed" message was used.
  • The reminder for PDFs that are too large has a new version for these models. It says the model cannot be sent a PDF file, only its pages as images, suggests pages: "1-N" to read the whole thing when the page count is known, and uses "page" or "pages" correctly. Before, it always said "This PDF is too large to read all at once."

The Read tool's own description is unchanged in this release.

Why

On models without whole-PDF support, Claude gets accurate instructions for reading a PDF and is steered away from retrying the same failing read.

How sure we are
Something disagreesSomething we can check disagrees with this entry, or the writer said they could not settle it.
The writer flagged doubtWhich models trigger this message is not stated.

See this entry in the whole of v2.1.288 →

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