[sonnet and opus] Inability to use web search in dependency research

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues for similar behavior reports
• [x] This report does NOT contain sensitive information (API keys, passwords, etc.)

Type of Behavior Issue

Claude accessed files outside the working directory

What You Asked Claude to Do

Without context the prompt I used is useless I think anthropic should realize this. I cannot provide it anyway publicly.

In the current case I wanted a .env file which is backed by PydanticSettings. I am using the secret_dir in prod but locally wanted an override.

What Claude Actually Did

Step by step of what a model did is a big ask. The general strokes though
I do not use CLAUDE.md and there is no other system prompt modification.
Memories are minimal and actually explicitly state the desired behavior in this case.

1. Checked the config file for what existed in the current package.
2. Read another package for existing patterns.
3. Checked a couple README.md and found nothing
4. tried a handful of python temp/test files to "understand the limitation"
5. tried copying dependency code to read. This is where I stopped it.

Expected Behavior

Used the documentation on the internet. It is just annoying how much these models try to "fix" code they have no business touching.

Files Affected

Just tmp files. I stopped it before modification occurred.

Permission Mode

Accept Edits was ON (auto-accepting changes)

Can You Reproduce This?

Sometimes (intermittent)

Steps to Reproduce

It is more of you have to pay attention to what the harness is doing. Very rarely do I see docs accessed and more often it is the direct code reads which sometime spirals to the harness modifying things it should not in undocumented ways.

Claude Model

Opus

Relevant Conversation

Impact

High - Significant unwanted changes

Claude Code Version

2.1.210

Platform

Anthropic API

Additional Context

_No response_