---
title: If your page crashes in the browser, an AI fetcher only sees the error
description: DeepSeek’s fetcher returned 29 of 30 pages as clean Markdown. The one that failed had a JavaScript error, and the error message was all it got.
url: https://tanujsharma.xyz/notes/ai-fetchers-see-what-your-server-sends
author: Tanuj Sharma
published: 2026-10-23
---

# If your page crashes in the browser, an AI fetcher only sees the error

I sent 30 pages from one site through DeepSeek’s Fetch API to see what an AI system actually receives.

29 came back as clean Markdown with the full content. The other one crashed in the browser with a client-side JavaScript error. DeepSeek received the error message and nothing else.

A person might refresh and get the page. A fetcher won’t. Whatever it gets on that one request is what the AI works from.

Two quick checks for any page you care about:

1. Load it with JavaScript turned off, or fetch the raw HTML, and see whether the main content is there.
2. Look for pages that return an error or less than about 500 characters of text. Fix those first.

This is one fetcher on one site, so it shows how the fetcher behaves, not how every AI crawler treats the web.

## Related

- Research: [What DeepSeek’s search API reveals about authority in AI search.](https://tanujsharma.xyz/research/deepseek-search-api-authority)
- Research: [How AI referral traffic behaves differently from traditional search.](https://tanujsharma.xyz/research/ai-referral-traffic-vs-search)
- Note: [In AI search, authority decides who reaches the first page](https://tanujsharma.xyz/notes/authority-is-a-gate-in-ai-search)
- Note: [Give every page a date machines can read](https://tanujsharma.xyz/notes/put-a-date-on-every-page)