> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.spaceduck.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Web Fetch

> Fetch any URL and convert HTML to clean text — a lightweight alternative to the browser tool.

## What it does

Fetches a URL via HTTP and converts the response to clean text:

* **HTML** — converted to readable text (headings, lists, links preserved)
* **JSON** — pretty-printed
* **Plain text** — returned as-is

Much faster and cheaper than launching a browser. The assistant prefers this for server-rendered pages and direct URLs.

## Requirements

None. Web fetch is always available — no configuration needed.

## How the assistant uses it

When the assistant needs to read a web page and doesn't need to interact with it (no clicking, no JavaScript rendering), it calls `web_fetch` with a URL. Common scenarios:

* Reading documentation pages
* Fetching API responses
* Reading articles or blog posts
* Checking content at a URL you shared in chat

## Configuration

| Setting     | Default         | Description                          |
| ----------- | --------------- | ------------------------------------ |
| `maxChars`  | 20,000          | Output truncation limit              |
| `timeoutMs` | 15,000 ms       | Request timeout                      |
| `userAgent` | `Spaceduck/1.0` | User-agent string sent with requests |

## Limitations

* **No JavaScript execution** — won't work for SPAs or client-rendered pages (use the browser tool instead)
* **No authentication** — can't access pages behind login
* **Follows redirects** automatically
* **Truncates** output at `maxChars` to stay within LLM context limits

<Tip>
  If the assistant says it can't read a page or gets empty content, the page likely requires JavaScript. Ask it to use the browser tool instead.
</Tip>