Web Tools

Iris has access to Anthropic's built-in web tools, enabling real-time web search and content fetching during conversations. These tools run on Anthropic's infrastructure, not your server.

Available Tools

Web Search

Search the web for current information. Powered by Anthropic's search infrastructure.

Use cases:

• Finding recent news and events
• Researching current topics
• Looking up documentation
• Fact-checking information

Web Fetch

Retrieve content from specific URLs. Fetches and parses web pages.

Use cases:

• Reading article content
• Fetching documentation pages
• Accessing public APIs
• Retrieving linked resources

Example Conversations

Web Search

You: "What's the latest news about Laravel?"

Iris: [searches the web]

"Here's what I found: Laravel 12 was released with improved performance, new Livewire 4 features announced at Laracon, Laravel Cloud entering public beta..."

Web Fetch

You: "Can you check what the Prism documentation says about streaming?"

Iris: [fetches the docs]

"According to the Prism documentation, streaming supports three response types..."

Combined Usage

You: "Find best practices for Laravel API versioning and summarize them"

Iris: [searches, then fetches relevant articles]

"Based on my research, here are the recommended approaches..."

When Iris Uses Web Tools

Uses web tools when:

• Asked about current events or recent news
• Questions require up-to-date information beyond training data
• You provide a URL to read
• Information isn't in memories or conversation context
• Explicitly asked to search or look something up

Avoids web tools when:

• Information is available from memory
• The question is about personal matters
• Historical or stable information is sufficient
• The answer is in the current conversation
• You're discussing something Iris already knows about you

NOTE

Iris tries to be efficient with web tools. If it can answer from memory or context, it won't search unnecessarily.

Privacy and Data Considerations

What Gets Sent to Anthropic

When web tools are used:

• Web search: Your search query is sent to Anthropic's search infrastructure
• Web fetch: The URL is sent to Anthropic's servers to fetch

The fetched content is processed by Claude to generate a response. This happens on Anthropic's infrastructure, not your server.

What Stays Local

• Your conversation history
• Your memories
• Your calendar data
• Your user profile

Web tools don't have access to your local data. They only see the specific query or URL being processed.

Disabling Web Tools for Privacy

If you prefer Iris not to access the web:

// config/iris-custom.php
return [
    'provider_tools' => [],
];

Iris will rely solely on memories, conversation context, and its training data.

Tool Invocation Behavior

When Tools Are Called vs Skipped

Iris decides whether to use web tools based on the request. The decision factors include:

Factor	More likely to search	Less likely to search
Topic	Current events, recent releases	Personal preferences, historical facts
Keywords	"latest", "recent", "news", "current"	"remember", "you know that", "I told you"
Context	No relevant memories	Strong memory matches
Explicitness	"Search for...", "Look up..."	General questions

Multiple Tool Calls

Iris can chain web tools:

1. Search for relevant sources
2. Fetch the most promising result
3. Synthesize information from the fetched content

This might look like:

web_search("Laravel 12 upgrade guide") → finds URLs
web_fetch("https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/upgrade") → gets content
→ Summarizes the upgrade steps

Configuration

Web tools are configured in config/iris.php under the provider_tools key. To customize without modifying core files, create config/iris-custom.php.

Disabling All Web Tools

// config/iris-custom.php
return [
    'provider_tools' => [],
];

Disabling Specific Tools

Keep only the tools you want:

// config/iris-custom.php
return [
    'provider_tools' => [
        ['type' => 'web_search_20250305', 'name' => 'web_search'],
        // web_fetch disabled
    ],
];

Or disable just web search:

// config/iris-custom.php
return [
    'provider_tools' => [
        ['type' => 'web_fetch_20250910', 'name' => 'web_fetch'],
        // web_search disabled
    ],
];

The provider_tools key uses a replace strategy -your list completely replaces the default. See Customization for more on local configuration.

Best Practices

Be specific: "Search for Laravel 11 upgrade guide from official docs" works better than "Find Laravel stuff"

Provide URLs when available: "Read this article: https://example.com/article" is more reliable than searching

Ask for sources: "What are PHP 8.4 features? Please cite sources." - Iris will include URLs

Specify recency: "What are the latest PHP 8.4 features released this month?" helps get current results

Troubleshooting

Could not fetch URL: The site may block automated access, require authentication, or use heavy JavaScript rendering. Try a different source or ask Iris to search for alternatives.

Results seem outdated: Ask specifically for recent information ("from 2026") or try different search terms. Web search results depend on what Anthropic's search infrastructure finds.

Tool not being used: If Iris isn't searching when you expect it to, be more explicit: "Search the web for..." or "Look up the latest..."

Slow responses: Web tool calls add latency since they require external requests. This is normal for search/fetch operations.