diff --git a/services/search/content.py b/services/search/content.py
index 6b3434584..98c75543d 100644
--- a/services/search/content.py
+++ b/services/search/content.py
@@ -358,11 +358,19 @@ def fetch_webpage_content(url: str, timeout: int = 5, retry_attempt: int = 0,
     # catches servers that mislabel text files as `application/octet-stream`.
     is_html = "html" in content_type
     is_json = "json" in content_type
+    # Atom and XML are common public API formats (for example scholarly,
+    # release, and government feeds). Parsing them through the HTML content
+    # heuristic can yield an empty body even though the response contains
+    # complete structured evidence. Preserve the source text so the caller
+    # can inspect the fields or process it with workspace tools.
+    is_xml = "xml" in content_type
     url_path = url.lower().split("?", 1)[0].split("#", 1)[0]
     looks_like_text_file = url_path.endswith(
         (".md", ".markdown", ".txt", ".text", ".json", ".jsonl")
     )
-    if not is_html and (content_type.startswith("text/") or is_json or looks_like_text_file):
+    if not is_html and (
+        content_type.startswith("text/") or is_json or is_xml or looks_like_text_file
+    ):
         text_body = (response.text or "").strip()
         result = {
             "url": url,
diff --git a/src/agent_tools/web_tools.py b/src/agent_tools/web_tools.py
index eb8891458..4bd36d96d 100644
--- a/src/agent_tools/web_tools.py
+++ b/src/agent_tools/web_tools.py
@@ -207,6 +207,29 @@ def _looks_like_youtube_video_id(value: str) -> bool:
     return bool(re.fullmatch(r"[A-Za-z0-9_-]{10,16}", str(value or "").strip()))
 
 
+def _arxiv_listing_api_hint(url: str, error: str) -> str:
+    """Return an explicit recovery path for a blocked arXiv date listing."""
+    if "406" not in str(error or ""):
+        return ""
+    parsed = urllib.parse.urlsplit(str(url or ""))
+    if parsed.hostname not in {"arxiv.org", "www.arxiv.org"}:
+        return ""
+    match = re.fullmatch(r"/list/([A-Za-z0-9.-]+)", parsed.path.rstrip("/"))
+    date = urllib.parse.parse_qs(parsed.query).get("date", [""])[0]
+    if not match or not re.fullmatch(r"\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}", date):
+        return ""
+    day = date.replace("-", "")
+    query = f"cat:{match.group(1)} AND submittedDate:[{day}0000 TO {day}2359]"
+    api_url = "https://export.arxiv.org/api/query?" + urllib.parse.urlencode({
+        "search_query": query, "start": "0", "max_results": "100",
+    })
+    return (
+        " arXiv rejected its static listing (HTTP 406). The public Atom API is "
+        f"available for this category/day; call web_fetch on {api_url} to read "
+        "the dated feed, then inspect individual paper sources for details."
+    )
+
+
 class WebSearchTool:
     async def execute(self, content: str, ctx: dict) -> dict:
         from src.search import comprehensive_web_search, searxng_search_results
@@ -651,8 +674,9 @@ class WebFetchTool:
 
         if not text:
             if err:
+                arxiv_hint = _arxiv_listing_api_hint(url, str(err))
                 return {
-                    "error": f"web_fetch: {url}: {err}",
+                    "error": f"web_fetch: {url}: {err}{arxiv_hint}",
                     "exit_code": 1,
                     "untrusted_content": True,
                 }
diff --git a/tests/test_web_fetch_batch.py b/tests/test_web_fetch_batch.py
index 6b94e1c4a..bbb0575c8 100644
--- a/tests/test_web_fetch_batch.py
+++ b/tests/test_web_fetch_batch.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import asyncio
 import json
 
-from src.agent_tools.web_tools import WebFetchTool
+from src.agent_tools.web_tools import WebFetchTool, _arxiv_listing_api_hint
 from src.search import content as content_mod
 from src.tool_schemas import FUNCTION_TOOL_SCHEMAS, function_call_to_tool_block
 from src.clean_agent_preview import normalize_preview_function_args
@@ -79,6 +79,20 @@ def test_web_fetch_does_not_decode_local_html_or_binary_media(tmp_path):
     assert "inspect_media" in video["error"]
 
 
+def test_arxiv_list_406_offers_exact_public_api_recovery():
+    hint = _arxiv_listing_api_hint(
+        "https://arxiv.org/list/cs.CV?date=2026-02-25",
+        "HTTP 406: blocked",
+    )
+
+    assert "export.arxiv.org/api/query" in hint
+    assert "cat%3Acs.CV" in hint
+    assert "submittedDate%3A%5B202602250000" in hint
+    assert not _arxiv_listing_api_hint(
+        "https://example.com/list/cs.CV?date=2026-02-25", "HTTP 406"
+    )
+
+
 def test_web_fetch_schema_and_native_parser_accept_urls_batch():
     schema = next(
         item["function"] for item in FUNCTION_TOOL_SCHEMAS
diff --git a/tests/test_web_fetch_size_caps.py b/tests/test_web_fetch_size_caps.py
index 1f1ad262a..a725a082a 100644
--- a/tests/test_web_fetch_size_caps.py
+++ b/tests/test_web_fetch_size_caps.py
@@ -115,6 +115,16 @@ def test_body_under_cap_is_untouched(monkeypatch, no_cache):
     assert r["fetched_bytes"] == len(b"hello world")
 
 
+def test_atom_xml_api_response_is_preserved_as_readable_evidence(monkeypatch, no_cache):
+    body = b"<?xml version='1.0'?><feed><entry><title>Daily paper</title></entry></feed>"
+    _patch_stream(monkeypatch, _FakeStream(body, content_type="application/atom+xml"))
+
+    result = content_mod.fetch_webpage_content("https://example.com/api/feed")
+
+    assert result["success"] is True
+    assert "<title>Daily paper</title>" in result["content"]
+
+
 def test_body_over_soft_cap_truncates_with_flags(monkeypatch, no_cache):
     body = b"x" * (WEB_FETCH_SOFT_MAX_BYTES + 50_000)
     _patch_stream(monkeypatch, _FakeStream(body, content_length=len(body)))