Perusing

Etymology

From Middle English perusen (to use up thoroughly, to examine to the point of completion) + -ing; the irony of its common misuse to mean 'skim' is preserved here as a documented feature of the Claude Code UX literature, where it is deployed with cheerful inaccuracy

Definition

Claude's thorough, methodical examination of a document, codebase, or context window, characterized by the model reading every token with the grave attentiveness of a solicitor reviewing a will. In practice, this state lasts between 1.2 and 40 seconds and produces the same output either way.

Diagram

Usage

"The model was observed perusing the 84,000-token legal document for approximately 2.7 seconds before summarizing it as 'complicated but fine,' a characterization that was later disputed in arbitration." - 'Confidence Calibration in Long-Context Legal Review Tasks', preprint, 2024

See Also