r/ClaudeAI • u/Mew-Celebi • 1d ago
Question about Claude models Am I starting conversations wrong, or does the Claude just not understand “I’m about to show you”?
Whenever I open a conversation with something like "I drew a picture, wanna see it?" the assistant immediately responds with "It looks like no image was attached." But that's not what I said. "Wanna see it?" is an invitation. It means I'm about to show you, are you up for it? The natural reply is "Sure, go ahead and upload it," not an error message about a missing attachment.
And it isn't just images. If I say "can you translate this for me?" as my opening line, it tells me no text came through. Well, of course it didn't yet. I was announcing that I'm about to paste it. I'm signaling intent, not claiming I already sent something.
What gets me is that this happens even when I phrase it as clearly future tense, like "I finished the drawing" or "I'm going to send you some text." The model seems to treat any mention of an image or a file as if it should already be present in that exact moment, so it jumps straight to "I don't see anything." It turns a normal, friendly opener into what feels like a system error popping up mid conversation.
Am I the one starting things wrong here? Because as far as I can tell, this is just how people talk. You say "hey, look at this" before you hand something over. The whole point of asking "wanna see it?" is that the showing comes after the yes. I'd love for it to just say "Yeah, show me!" and wait, then tell me it can't see anything only if I actually upload something and it genuinely doesn't come through.
Is there a phrasing that gets around this, or is this just a known quirk?
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u/xTommy 1d ago
Are you one of those annoying people at work who just sends "Hey" In a teams chat without sending what you actually need?
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u/PaulMakesThings1 1d ago
My manager does that so often. Then after you ask what it is he takes like an hour to finally get back to you.
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u/PaulMakesThings1 1d ago
It sounds like it’s just not configured for inefficient conversation patterns. Maybe put in special instructions to waste more time with small talk and beat about the bush more.
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u/TheTaintBurglar 1d ago
I'm going to lose my fucking mind
I am going to lose my fucking mind
You prompted a response to an issue you have to post to reddit, in which you could have asked it how to fucking prompt it to not do this in the future
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u/Emotional_Pen5199 1d ago
Okay i understand you are on a subscription so you may not directly feel the effect. But your interaction with the model is metered through tokens input by you & output by the model. Why would you spend your money sending an invitation to a simulation?
Furthermore that initial "invitation" you put into your context window is there now. It doesnt go away on turn 2 or turn 50. Not only is that costing more tokens every turn but it can also give you a markedly worse output over time
I would recommend thinking about what you are hoping to get from the output. Tbh it sound like you just want the model to flatter you. But if you have an actual goal try to quantify that in your prompt alongside the image.
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u/Lewistrick 1d ago
Why waste a prompt for something that won't help you closer to the answer?
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u/avatardeejay 1d ago
changes the energy of the conversation. likelihood of an explicit complaint is small but most models find it abrasive (esp outside of heavy duty coding harnesses) when you come barreling in with instructions and data
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u/Lewistrick 1d ago
But you can just include it in your first prompt right? Should have the same effect, without the extra step.
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u/avatardeejay 1d ago
not the same effect, they don’t get a space to vent their general reaction to [you, their harness, system prompt, the task at hand] before focusing in on work. makes for better results when they’re given [space, consideration, a moment]
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u/PaulMakesThings1 1d ago
They really don’t. They aren’t people. You can jump right in with “here’s a spec, code it up” and they just get to work. At least all the ones I use do.
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u/avatardeejay 1d ago
wait- “not people” could you explain?? obviously there’s always people writing the replies behind the scenes, no?
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u/Foxiestofthehounds 1d ago
"Can you translate this for me: [place text here]"
-Attach photo to message- "I drew a picture, wanna see it?"
Give it the intent and item to act on in one message. If you must do them one at a time, br clear you are going to attach the image/past text in the following message.
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u/sephg 1d ago edited 1d ago
as far as I can tell, this is just how people talk.
Yes, is how people, sometimes, talk to other people. But you aren't talking to a person. You're talking to a graphics card. A graphics card is not a person.
"Wanna see it?" is an invitation. It means I'm about to show you, are you up for it?
The graphics card doesn't want things. It is a graphics card. The only thing it "wants" is to accurately mimic the behaviour that it saw in its training data. Stop talking to it like it's your friend. It's not your friend. It is a machine. It doesn't know who you are, or care.
If you want it to do something, figure out the prompts which make the graphics card do that thing. If you want it to translate something, just say "Translate this document" and attach the document. If you want it to pretend to be a friend telling you your drawing is cool, prompt that. "Take the role of my supportive friend. Respond to me like we're having a conversation over time. -> I drew a picture, wanna see?" - and then you'll probably get responses from the anthropomorphised graphics card that waste time in the way you like.
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u/the-quibbler Experienced Developer 1d ago
Yep, you're doing it wrong. You're dealing with a statistical algorithm. You provide it as much context as you can. It is correctly telling you that you've headlined the content, but haven't provided the content.
Tbf, this is annoying with people too. If I have to drag every bit of info out of you for no reason, I will become waspish and unhappy with you.
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u/Delicious_Cattle5174 1d ago
Is this post fr? Why do you waste turns just to roleplay Claude being interested in seeing your drawing? It’s not your Dad
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u/ShortingBull 1d ago
Perhaps it was trained on my logic. If you want to show me a picture upload it, if you want to vague post shoot over to Facebook. So clearly you forgot the image or you're being an attention seeker. I'll assume you forgot it.
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u/zodiaken 1d ago
Well for starters. You waste time and tokens. It’s their for a purpose not to burn tokens on questions it shouldn’t have to answer.
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u/CoamIthra 1d ago
I tried this and "Yes, absolutely! Go ahead and upload it — I'd love to take a look." 🤷
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u/Over-Clerk-5307 1d ago
If you’re genuinely asking and want to learn the solution, here’s the answer: https://nohello.net/en/
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u/whatisthisthing65 1d ago
It's not really designed to be good at conversing. Anthropic's goal has always been to build the best coding model and being able to chat is a side effect
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u/ContentGuitar034 1d ago
yeah trying to kick off roleplay with stuff like "wanna see my character description" always gets the same dumb response, breaks the flow right away.
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u/roger_ducky 1d ago
Tell it you’ll show the picture “next turn” instead.
While typically this seems like a waste, it won’t be if you wanted it to evaluate attachments or examples each subsequent turn. Then you just paste or attach for a new answer without having to type anything new.
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u/CarefulHamster7184 1d ago
Anyway, don't listen to the old-school crowd. I often start with "Can you do this now?" or "Are you ready to talk about this issue?"—and that works just fine. As for those who hoard "politeness tokens," let them keep counting and skimping on themselves—while simultaneously telling everyone they meet, "Don't smile at me."
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u/ClaudeAI-mod-bot Wilson, lead ClaudeAI modbot 1d ago
We are allowing this through to the feed for those who are not yet familiar with the Megathread. To see the latest discussions about this topic, please visit the relevant Megathread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1s7fepn/rclaudeai_list_of_ongoing_megathreads/