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Exa

Exa

Remote
exa.aiSearch5.2kUpdated today

About Exa

Exa is a hosted MCP server for AI agents that need web search, page retrieval, or multi-step research. Optional tools add filtered search and Exa Agent workflows for structured results.

Key features

  1. 01Web search
  2. 02Fetch webpages as Markdown
  3. 03Optional multi-step research
  4. 04Search filters and crawling
  5. 05Hosted MCP endpoint

Use cases

  1. 01Research a topic across the web
  2. 02Retrieve clean content from URLs
  3. 03Build structured research results

MCP support

Exa exposes web search and webpage-fetch tools at its hosted MCP endpoint. Optional tools include advanced search and `agent_run` for multi-step research.

Configuration

Remote servers need no local install. Pick your client, then copy the config or install in one click.

Endpointhttps://mcp.exa.ai/mcp
Copy install command
Claude CodeTerminal
Cursor.cursor/mcp.json
VS Code.vscode/mcp.json
Claude Desktopclaude_desktop_config.json
Windsurf~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json

Run commands in a terminal; paste JSON into the client’s MCP config and restart. Servers that need sign-in will prompt on first connect.

Tools

2
ParameterTypeRequiredDescription
querystringYesNatural language search query. Should be a semantically rich description of the ideal page, not just keywords. Optionally include category:<type> (company, people) to focus results — e.g. 'category:people John Doe software engineer'.
numResultsnumberNoNumber of search results to return (default: 10).
objectivestringYesGoal for this search turn; say which documents should rank first, which should be excluded, and what specific facts or figures to pull from them.

Details

From the project README

Exa
Exa MCP Server

Connect AI agents to Exa for web search, content fetching, and multi-step research.

Install in Cursor Install in VS Code Install Claude Plugin Install Codex/ChatGPT Plugin

Documentation  ·  NPM Package  ·  Get your API key

Installation

Connect to Exa's hosted MCP server:

https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp

Or use a plugin when your client supports one.

Agent Plugin

This repository is an Agent Plugin. Install it with any compatible client.

Claude

Install from the Claude Plugin Marketplace, or run:

claude plugin install exa@claude-plugins-official
Codex / ChatGPT

Install via Plugins in ChatGPT, or run:

codex mcp add exa --url https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp
Other MCP Clients

Most clients can be configured manually with the standard mcpServers shape:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa": {
      "type": "streamable-http",
      "url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp",
    }
  }
}
Client-specific configs

Exa MCP works with most other clients, point them at https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp.

ClientWhere to add it
KiroUse the Kiro power, or add manually to ~/.kiro/settings/mcp.json
LM StudioAdd to LM Studio, or add manually to mcp.json
ReplitAdd to Replit
Grok Build/marketplace → install Exa, then /mcp to sign in
Gemini CLIAdd manually to ~/.gemini/settings.json
OpenCodeAdd manually to opencode.json
WindsurfAdd manually to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json
Google AntigravityAdd manually to mcp_config.json
ZedAdd manually to settings.json under context_servers
WarpSettings → Agents → MCP servers
v0 by VercelSettings → MCP connections

Available Tools

Default Tools
ToolDescription
web_search_exaSearch the web for any topic and get clean, ready-to-use content
web_fetch_exaRead a webpage's full content as clean markdown from one or more URLs
Optional Tools (enable via the tools parameter)
ToolDescription
agent_runRun an Exa Agent for multi-step research, list-building, enrichment, and structured output
web_search_advanced_exaAdvanced search with filters, domains, dates, highlights, summaries, and subpage crawling

Enable tools by appending them to the MCP URL (this will replace the defaults, so include all you want):

https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?tools=web_search_advanced_exa
https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?tools=web_search_exa,web_fetch_exa,agent_run

Exa Agent requires authentication (OAuth or an API key).

Agent Skills

Skills live in skills/ and load with Agent Plugin installs. The Claude plugin in plugins/exa/ ships a copy of them; npm test fails when the copy drifts. Each package version bump on main publishes plugins/exa/ to the root of the claude-plugin branch, which Claude's plugin directory reads. To publish a plugin-only change between releases, run the Publish Claude plugin workflow manually.

SkillPathUse when
searchskills/search/Deep research, lead gen, competitive analysis, multi-step web investigation
exa-agentskills/exa-agent/Exa Agent runs, enrichment, structured output, Connect providers

Invoke from your client's skill UI (or /skill-name where supported). MCP-only setups still get the tools; skills add orchestration on top.

Authentication

The hosted MCP server works anonymously with rate limits. For higher limits and access to Exa Agent, use either OAuth or an API key.

OAuth is preferred: most clients prompt you to sign in to Exa. To force the login flow (useful for shared connectors and plugins), use https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?login or https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp/oauth.

If you prefer, you can get an API key from the dashboard and pass it on the URL as ?exaApiKey=…. You can also send it as a Authorization: Bearer … header or an x-api-key header.

Built with ❤️ by Exa

Comments

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New to MCP?

From what the protocol is to installing your first server, these answers cover most first questions.

An open protocol that defines how AI applications connect to external tools and data in a uniform way. Clients talk to the model; MCP servers provide tools, resources and prompt templates. They exchange standard messages, so one server can be reused by many clients.