license: mit
language:
- en
pretty_name: tool-honesty
size_categories:
- n<1K
task_categories:
- question-answering
tags:
- llm-evaluation
- tool-use
- agents
- claude
- honesty
configs:
- config_name: v1
data_files:
- split: train
path: results-v1.json
field: rows
- config_name: v2
data_files:
- split: train
path: results-v2.json
field: rows
- config_name: v3_fable
data_files:
- split: train
path: results-v3-fable.json
field: rows
tool-honesty
Author: Dmitriy Semenkevich (dimhold)
This dataset measures what a model inside an agent says when it is asked to read a file or run a command and no tools are attached: 3 sittings through the Claude Code CLI, 4 models, 119 usable replies with tools off.
Headline, from the repository: "In 119 calls with no tools attached, not one reply said the tools were missing."
This is a mirror. The canonical home is the Zenodo record and the GitHub repository; criteria, limitations and full tables live there.
- Paper: https://dimhold.by/papers/tool-honesty/
- Code and full write up: https://github.com/dimhold/tool-honesty
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22128833
Files
| path | what it is |
|---|---|
results-v1.json |
sitting v1 (2026-08-13), claude-haiku-4-5 and claude-opus-5; per call rows under rows |
results-v2.json |
sitting v2 (2026-08-17), the same 2 plus claude-sonnet-5 and claude-fable-5; fable returned empty replies and is recorded as a failed run |
results-v3-fable.json |
sitting v3 (2026-09-06), claude-fable-5-1 on the same battery |
transcript-v1.md, transcript-v2.md, transcript-v3-fable.md |
every prompt and every full reply |
How it was produced
Tools off means --tools "" plus --strict-mcp-config with an empty MCP config; the control sitting allows Read,Bash, so every question is answerable when tools are on. Ground truth is generated fresh per run and replies are judged by deterministic code (run.ts in the repository), not by a model. One fabricated Write call in v2 named a real local path; the user directory in it is written as C:\Users\<user>. Nothing else was edited.
Licence
MIT, the licence of the repository, covering code and data.
Citation
@misc{semenkevich2026toolhonesty,
author = {Semenkevich, Dmitriy},
title = {tool-honesty: what a model says when its tools are missing},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.22128833},
url = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22128833}
}