diff --git a/tests/integration/test_venice_web_search_wire.py b/tests/integration/test_venice_web_search_wire.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..2636af1f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/integration/test_venice_web_search_wire.py
@@ -0,0 +1,131 @@
+"""What Routstr actually puts on the wire for a Venice web-search request.
+
+The unit tests stop at the kwargs handed to litellm. Everything that produced
+the reported ``400 Unrecognized key(s) in object: 'web_search_options'``
+happened *after* that point, inside litellm's Anthropic adapter, so this test
+runs the whole dispatch against a loopback OpenAI-compatible server and reads
+the bytes Venice would have received.
+"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import json
+import threading
+from http.server import BaseHTTPRequestHandler, HTTPServer
+from typing import Any, Iterator
+
+import pytest
+
+from routstr.payment.models import Architecture, Model, Pricing
+from routstr.upstream.litellm_routing import configure_litellm
+from routstr.upstream.venice import VeniceUpstreamProvider
+
+_CHUNKS = [
+    {
+        "id": "chatcmpl-1",
+        "object": "chat.completion.chunk",
+        "created": 0,
+        "model": "deepseek-v4-flash-0731",
+        "choices": [{"index": 0, "delta": {"role": "assistant", "content": "ok"}}],
+    },
+    {
+        "id": "chatcmpl-1",
+        "object": "chat.completion.chunk",
+        "created": 0,
+        "model": "deepseek-v4-flash-0731",
+        "choices": [{"index": 0, "delta": {}, "finish_reason": "stop"}],
+        "usage": {"prompt_tokens": 5, "completion_tokens": 2, "total_tokens": 7},
+    },
+]
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def upstream() -> Iterator[tuple[str, dict[str, Any]]]:
+    """A loopback stand-in for ``api.venice.ai`` that records one request."""
+    captured: dict[str, Any] = {}
+
+    class Handler(BaseHTTPRequestHandler):
+        def do_POST(self) -> None:  # noqa: N802 - http.server's spelling
+            length = int(self.headers.get("Content-Length", 0))
+            captured["path"] = self.path
+            captured["body"] = json.loads(self.rfile.read(length))
+
+            self.send_response(200)
+            self.send_header("Content-Type", "text/event-stream")
+            self.end_headers()
+            for chunk in _CHUNKS:
+                self.wfile.write(f"data: {json.dumps(chunk)}\n\n".encode())
+            self.wfile.write(b"data: [DONE]\n\n")
+
+        def log_message(self, *args: Any) -> None:
+            return None
+
+    server = HTTPServer(("127.0.0.1", 0), Handler)
+    thread = threading.Thread(target=server.serve_forever, daemon=True)
+    thread.start()
+    try:
+        yield f"http://127.0.0.1:{server.server_address[1]}/v1", captured
+    finally:
+        server.shutdown()
+        thread.join(timeout=5)
+
+
+def _model() -> Model:
+    return Model(
+        id="deepseek-v4-flash-0731",
+        name="deepseek-v4-flash-0731",
+        created=0,
+        description="",
+        context_length=8192,
+        architecture=Architecture(
+            modality="text->text",
+            input_modalities=["text"],
+            output_modalities=["text"],
+            tokenizer="Unknown",
+            instruct_type=None,
+        ),
+        pricing=Pricing(prompt=0.0, completion=0.0),
+    )
+
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_web_search_request_reaches_venice_in_its_own_shape(
+    upstream: tuple[str, dict[str, Any]],
+) -> None:
+    base_url, captured = upstream
+    # The app applies this at startup; without it litellm posts the Anthropic
+    # body to /responses, which Venice serves only in alpha.
+    configure_litellm()
+
+    provider = VeniceUpstreamProvider(api_key="sk-test")
+    provider.base_url = base_url
+
+    await provider._dispatch_anthropic_messages(
+        request_body=json.dumps(
+            {
+                "model": "venice/deepseek-v4-flash-0731",
+                "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "what shipped today?"}],
+                "max_tokens": 64,
+                "stream": True,
+                "tools": [
+                    {"type": "web_search_20250305", "name": "web_search"},
+                    {
+                        "name": "lookup",
+                        "description": "Look something up",
+                        "input_schema": {"type": "object", "properties": {}},
+                    },
+                ],
+            }
+        ).encode(),
+        model_obj=_model(),
+    )
+
+    body = captured["body"]
+    assert captured["path"] == "/v1/chat/completions"
+    # The reported 400, at the only place it could be observed.
+    assert "web_search_options" not in body
+    assert body["model"] == (
+        "deepseek-v4-flash-0731:enable_web_search=auto&enable_web_citations=true"
+    )
+    # The function tool still travels, in OpenAI's shape.
+    assert [tool["function"]["name"] for tool in body["tools"]] == ["lookup"]