You'll noticeTier: how much it should matter to you
3Useful: my rating, 1 to 5
2Signal: worth watching, 1 to 5
Web FetchArea: what it touches
ImprovementsKind: in v2.1.290,
ImprovementsSection of the release
Unclear How the starting position is passed to the tool is not clear.
What
WebFetch is the tool Claude uses to read a web page. It used to take only a url and a prompt, so on a very long page Claude always got the same cut-off first part. It now accepts an optional offset:
offset is a character position in the page text, a whole number of zero or more. Claude passes the value the previous result gave to pick up where it left off.
A page shown from a given position carries a "from character N" note.
Fetching again at the same offset returns the same split.
If the offset is past the end of the page, the result says nothing is left to show from that offset.
When Claude Code shows tool calls in detail, the WebFetch line includes the offset when one was used.
In the prompt capture taken under this release, the tool's stock description is unchanged from the previous version.
Why
Claude can now read a long page in pieces instead of stopping where the first piece was cut off. If you watch the tool calls, an offset: value means Claude is reading further into the same page.
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 doubtHow the starting position is passed to the tool is not clear.
