diff --git a/lib/Discovery_Schema.cpp b/lib/Discovery_Schema.cpp
index 360dd11e8..51ebc3fbc 100644
--- a/lib/Discovery_Schema.cpp
+++ b/lib/Discovery_Schema.cpp
@@ -2003,13 +2003,14 @@ std::string Discovery_Schema::fts_search_llm(
 		}
 		delete resultset;
 
-		// If include_objects, fetch object details
-		if (include_objects) {
-			proxy_error("FTS search: include_objects=%d, objects_to_fetch size=%zu\n", include_objects ? 1 : 0, objects_to_fetch.size());
+		// If include_objects AND query is not empty (search mode), fetch object details
+		// For list mode (empty query), we don't include objects to avoid huge responses
+		if (include_objects && !query.empty()) {
+			proxy_info("FTS search: include_objects=true (search mode), objects_to_fetch size=%zu\n", objects_to_fetch.size());
 		}
 
-		if (include_objects && !objects_to_fetch.empty()) {
-			proxy_info("FTS search: include_objects=true, objects_to_fetch size=%zu\n", objects_to_fetch.size());
+		if (include_objects && !query.empty() && !objects_to_fetch.empty()) {
+			proxy_info("FTS search: Fetching object details for %zu objects\n", objects_to_fetch.size());
 
 			// First, build a map of object_name -> schema_name by querying the objects table
 			std::map<std::string, std::string> object_to_schema;
diff --git a/lib/Query_Tool_Handler.cpp b/lib/Query_Tool_Handler.cpp
index b4f3f8deb..f6d587f23 100644
--- a/lib/Query_Tool_Handler.cpp
+++ b/lib/Query_Tool_Handler.cpp
@@ -728,7 +728,7 @@ json Query_Tool_Handler::get_tool_list() {
 
 	tools.push_back(create_tool_schema(
 		"llm.search",
-		"Full-text search across LLM artifacts. For question_templates, returns example_sql, related_objects, template_json, and confidence. Use include_objects=true to get full object schema details.",
+		"Full-text search across LLM artifacts. For question_templates, returns example_sql, related_objects, template_json, and confidence. Use include_objects=true with a non-empty query to get full object schema details (for search mode only). Empty query (list mode) returns only templates without objects to avoid huge responses.",
 		{"run_id"},
 		{{"query", "string"}, {"limit", "integer"}, {"include_objects", "boolean"}}
 	));