diff --git a/litellm/integrations/websearch_interception/handler.py b/litellm/integrations/websearch_interception/handler.py
index 6a4929a6b22..cf46f5827f0 100644
--- a/litellm/integrations/websearch_interception/handler.py
+++ b/litellm/integrations/websearch_interception/handler.py
@@ -303,8 +303,11 @@ class WebSearchInterceptionLogger(CustomLogger):
         Strip known instructional prefixes so the search backend receives only
         the intended search terms rather than query wrapper keywords.
         """
-        cleaned = _CLAUDE_CODE_SEARCH_PREFIX_RE.sub("", raw_message).strip()
-        if (cleaned.startswith('"') and cleaned.endswith('"')) or (cleaned.startswith("'") and cleaned.endswith("'")):
+        prefix = _CLAUDE_CODE_SEARCH_PREFIX_RE.match(raw_message)
+        cleaned = (raw_message[prefix.end() :] if prefix else raw_message).strip()
+        if prefix and (
+            (cleaned.startswith('"') and cleaned.endswith('"')) or (cleaned.startswith("'") and cleaned.endswith("'"))
+        ):
             cleaned = cleaned[1:-1].strip()
         return cleaned if cleaned else raw_message.strip()
 
diff --git a/tests/unit/integrations/websearch_interception/test_websearch_short_circuit.py b/tests/unit/integrations/websearch_interception/test_websearch_short_circuit.py
index 2616a81ce96..81d3aa0b26f 100644
--- a/tests/unit/integrations/websearch_interception/test_websearch_short_circuit.py
+++ b/tests/unit/integrations/websearch_interception/test_websearch_short_circuit.py
@@ -417,6 +417,14 @@ class TestShortCircuitEntryPoint:
                 "Search for Claude Code releases",
                 "Search for Claude Code releases",
             ),
+            (
+                '"LiteLLM latest version release"',
+                '"LiteLLM latest version release"',
+            ),
+            (
+                "'fastapi SSE streaming'",
+                "'fastapi SSE streaming'",
+            ),
         ],
     )
     async def test_short_circuits_strips_claude_code_instructional_prefix(