Unclear Which state of the remote setting allows the refusal, and how many repeats it takes, is not clear.
What
Read is the tool Claude uses to look at files, including images such as screenshots. It can now refuse to return an image it has already returned, unchanged, several times. When it refuses, Claude is told to work from what it has already seen.
The refusal only happens when all of these are true:
- Re-reads: most recent image reads were reads of images already seen.
- Media removed: images were earlier taken out of the conversation to save space.
- Remote setting: a setting controlled from Anthropic's servers allows it.
Why
This stops loops where Claude keeps re-reading the same screenshot and fills up the conversation. If you see Claude decline to look at an image again, this is the reason.
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Which state of the remote setting allows the refusal, and how many repeats it takes, is not clear.