diff --git a/.vscode/settings.json b/.vscode/settings.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..47aa7730
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.vscode/settings.json
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+{
+    "cSpell.words": [
+        "subslice"
+    ]
+}
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 232d15fb..ae888a82 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -12,22 +12,22 @@ yarn global add teraslice-cli
 
 # Step 2:
 teraslice-cli assets deploy <cluster-alias> --build
-
 ```
-## APIS
 
- * [Elasticsearch Reader API](./docs/apis/elasticsearch_reader_api.md)
- * [Elasticsearch Sender API](./docs/apis/elasticsearch_sender_api.md)
- * [Spaces Reader API](./docs/apis/spaces_reader_api.md)
- * [Elasticsearch State Storage](./docs/apis/elasticsearch_state_storage.md)
+## APIS
 
+* [Elasticsearch Reader API](./docs/apis/elasticsearch_reader_api.md)
+* [Elasticsearch Sender API](./docs/apis/elasticsearch_sender_api.md)
+* [Spaces Reader API](./docs/apis/spaces_reader_api.md)
+* [Elasticsearch State Storage](./docs/apis/elasticsearch_state_storage.md)
 
 ## Operations
- * [elasticsearch_reader](./docs/operations/elasticsearch_reader.md)
- * [elasticsearch_bulk](./docs/operations/elasticsearch_bulk.md)
- * [elasticsearch_data_generator](./docs/operations/elasticsearch_data_generator.md)
- * [id_reader](./docs/operations/id_reader.md)
- * [spaces_reader](./docs/operations/spaces_reader.md)
+
+* [elasticsearch_reader](./docs/operations/elasticsearch_reader.md)
+* [elasticsearch_bulk](./docs/operations/elasticsearch_bulk.md)
+* [elasticsearch_data_generator](./docs/operations/elasticsearch_data_generator.md)
+* [id_reader](./docs/operations/id_reader.md)
+* [spaces_reader](./docs/operations/spaces_reader.md)
 
 ## Contributing
 
diff --git a/asset/asset.json b/asset/asset.json
index 93017b3a..1ce47eb3 100644
--- a/asset/asset.json
+++ b/asset/asset.json
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 {
     "name": "elasticsearch",
-    "version": "3.2.0"
+    "version": "3.3.0"
 }
diff --git a/asset/package.json b/asset/package.json
index 1890fe70..a2f37c7c 100644
--- a/asset/package.json
+++ b/asset/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
     "name": "asset",
-    "version": "3.2.0",
+    "version": "3.3.0",
     "private": true,
     "workspaces": {
         "nohoist": [
diff --git a/asset/src/elasticsearch_reader_api/schema.ts b/asset/src/elasticsearch_reader_api/schema.ts
index 3fe72f8c..33ac7cb8 100644
--- a/asset/src/elasticsearch_reader_api/schema.ts
+++ b/asset/src/elasticsearch_reader_api/schema.ts
@@ -236,6 +236,11 @@ export const schema = {
             }
         }
     },
+    useSimpleFetch: {
+        doc: 'Use the original fetch algorithm, that sets query size to windowSize without extra retry logic',
+        default: false,
+        format: Boolean
+    }
 };
 
 export default class Schema extends ConvictSchema<ElasticsearchReaderAPIConfig> {
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 8241dec6..5665921f 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
     "name": "elasticsearch-assets",
     "description": "bundle of processors for teraslice",
-    "version": "3.2.0",
+    "version": "3.3.0",
     "private": true,
     "workspaces": [
         "packages/*",
diff --git a/packages/elasticsearch-asset-apis/package.json b/packages/elasticsearch-asset-apis/package.json
index acc9e972..a49e4b6a 100644
--- a/packages/elasticsearch-asset-apis/package.json
+++ b/packages/elasticsearch-asset-apis/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
     "name": "@terascope/elasticsearch-asset-apis",
-    "version": "0.11.0",
+    "version": "0.11.1",
     "description": "Elasticsearch reader and sender apis",
     "publishConfig": {
         "access": "public"
diff --git a/packages/elasticsearch-asset-apis/src/elasticsearch-reader-api/ElasticsearchReaderAPI.ts b/packages/elasticsearch-asset-apis/src/elasticsearch-reader-api/ElasticsearchReaderAPI.ts
index 40ae6215..de54a21b 100644
--- a/packages/elasticsearch-asset-apis/src/elasticsearch-reader-api/ElasticsearchReaderAPI.ts
+++ b/packages/elasticsearch-asset-apis/src/elasticsearch-reader-api/ElasticsearchReaderAPI.ts
@@ -95,6 +95,10 @@ export class ElasticsearchReaderAPI {
      *   https://github.com/terascope/elasticsearch-assets/issues/948
      */
     async fetch(queryParams: ReaderSlice = {}): Promise<DataEntity[]|DataFrame|Buffer> {
+        if (this.config.useSimpleFetch) {
+            return this.simpleFetch(queryParams);
+        }
+
         const countExpansionFactor = 1.5;
         let querySize = 10000;
         const retryLimit = 5;
@@ -163,6 +167,22 @@ export class ElasticsearchReaderAPI {
         return result;
     }
 
+    async simpleFetch(queryParams: ReaderSlice = {}): Promise<DataEntity[]|DataFrame|Buffer> {
+        // attempt to get window if not set
+        if (!this.windowSize) await this.setWindowSize();
+
+        // if we did go ahead and complete query
+        const query = buildQuery(this.config, {
+            ...queryParams, count: this.windowSize
+        });
+
+        return this.client.search(
+            query,
+            this.config.response_type ?? FetchResponseType.data_entities,
+            this.config.type_config
+        );
+    }
+
     /**
      * Handles multiple result types and returns the number of returned records
      * @param result the object returned that contains the search results
diff --git a/packages/elasticsearch-asset-apis/src/elasticsearch-reader-api/index.ts b/packages/elasticsearch-asset-apis/src/elasticsearch-reader-api/index.ts
index 4f9601cb..bf5884c1 100644
--- a/packages/elasticsearch-asset-apis/src/elasticsearch-reader-api/index.ts
+++ b/packages/elasticsearch-asset-apis/src/elasticsearch-reader-api/index.ts
@@ -52,6 +52,10 @@ export async function createSpacesReaderAPI({
     if (config.response_type === FetchResponseType.data_frame && !config.type_config) {
         config.type_config = await client.getDataType();
     }
+    // simpleFetch should be used by the spaces reader to avoid the search size
+    // expansion algorithm, this is because most endpoints are configured with
+    // a much lower search limit than the backend clusters
+    config.useSimpleFetch = true;
 
     return new ElasticsearchReaderAPI(config, client, emitter, logger);
 }
diff --git a/packages/elasticsearch-asset-apis/src/elasticsearch-reader-api/interfaces.ts b/packages/elasticsearch-asset-apis/src/elasticsearch-reader-api/interfaces.ts
index 4e5fd8a5..7641b742 100644
--- a/packages/elasticsearch-asset-apis/src/elasticsearch-reader-api/interfaces.ts
+++ b/packages/elasticsearch-asset-apis/src/elasticsearch-reader-api/interfaces.ts
@@ -357,6 +357,7 @@ export interface ESReaderOptions {
     starting_key_depth: number;
     response_type?: FetchResponseType;
     type_config?: DataTypeConfig
+    useSimpleFetch?: boolean;
 }
 
 export interface SpacesAPIConfig extends ESReaderOptions {
diff --git a/test/spaces_reader/fetcher-spec.ts b/test/spaces_reader/fetcher-spec.ts
index 09783dab..2328a6d6 100644
--- a/test/spaces_reader/fetcher-spec.ts
+++ b/test/spaces_reader/fetcher-spec.ts
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ describe('spaces_reader fetcher', () => {
             ['range query', {
                 query: {
                     q: 'date:[2017-09-23T18:07:14.332Z TO 2017-09-25T18:07:14.332Z}',
-                    size: 150
+                    size: 100
                 },
                 opConfig: {
                     token,
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ describe('spaces_reader fetcher', () => {
             ['lucene query', {
                 query: {
                     q: '(foo:bar)',
-                    size: 7500,
+                    size: 5000,
                 },
                 opConfig: {
                     query: 'foo:bar',
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ describe('spaces_reader fetcher', () => {
             ['lucene query with url characters', {
                 query: {
                     q: '(foo:"bar+baz")',
-                    size: 7500,
+                    size: 5000,
                 },
                 opConfig: {
                     query: 'foo:"bar+baz"',
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ describe('spaces_reader fetcher', () => {
             ['lucene query with fields', {
                 query: {
                     q: '(test:query OR other:thing AND bytes:>=2000)',
-                    size: 150,
+                    size: 100,
                     fields: 'foo,bar,date'
                 },
                 opConfig: {
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ describe('spaces_reader fetcher', () => {
             ['lucene query with date range', {
                 query: {
                     q: 'example_date:[2017-09-23T18:07:14.332Z TO 2017-09-25T18:07:14.332Z} AND (foo:bar)',
-                    size: 300,
+                    size: 200,
                 },
                 opConfig: {
                     query: 'foo:bar',
@@ -124,7 +124,7 @@ describe('spaces_reader fetcher', () => {
             ['lucene query with geo point query', {
                 query: {
                     q: '(foo:bar)',
-                    size: 150,
+                    size: 100,
                     geo_point: '52.3456,79.6784',
                     geo_distance: '200km'
                 },
@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@ describe('spaces_reader fetcher', () => {
             ['lucene query with geo bounding box query', {
                 query: {
                     q: '(foo:bar)',
-                    size: 1500,
+                    size: 100000,
                     geo_box_top_left: '34.5234,79.42345',
                     geo_box_bottom_right: '54.5234,80.3456',
                     geo_sort_point: '52.3456,79.6784'
@@ -159,9 +159,7 @@ describe('spaces_reader fetcher', () => {
                     geo_box_bottom_right: '54.5234,80.3456',
                     geo_sort_point: '52.3456,79.6784',
                 },
-                msg: {
-                    count: 1000
-                }
+                msg: {}
             }],
 
         ])('when performing a %s', (m, { query, opConfig: _opConfig, msg }) => {
@@ -185,6 +183,9 @@ describe('spaces_reader fetcher', () => {
                 ]
             }), { clients });
 
+            // query size are overridden for unbounded fetches
+            query.size = maxSize;
+
             let results: DataEntity[];
 
             beforeEach(async () => {
@@ -204,7 +205,6 @@ describe('spaces_reader fetcher', () => {
                     });
 
                 await harness.initialize();
-                // FIXME: is msg ... a slice?
                 results = await harness.runSlice(msg);
             });
 
@@ -257,7 +257,7 @@ describe('spaces_reader fetcher', () => {
 
                 scope.post(`/${testIndex}?token=${token}`, {
                     q: '(test:query)',
-                    size: 7500,
+                    size: 100000,
                 })
                     .delay(500)
                     .reply(200, {