git:20260706.087b869 to git:20260715.81b2eaf

---

name: exa-search

description: Use Exa MCP for current web, code/docs, company, people, and page-fetch research. Prefer current hosted tool schemas and note deprecated tools.

---

# Exa MCP Search

Use this skill when online search, page fetch, code/docs lookup, company research, people research, or Exa MCP parameter checks are needed.

## Current Source Of Truth

- Hosted MCP endpoint: `https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp`

- Current npm package checked: `exa-mcp-server@3.2.1`; verified tarball SHA-256 `675688dffcd746b8bb6ac7f077b64b7382c4a305f948d44ba526e67be50396df`

- Tool schemas can change. Before adding new parameters, verify with `tools/list` through a normal HTTP client.

Direct MCP HTTP is the required invocation model for this skill. `curl` is fine, but keep the session and SSE parsing in small shell helpers instead of repeating low-level flags at every call site.

## Tool Choice

| Need | Prefer | Notes |

| --- | --- | --- |

| General current web search | `web_search_exa` | Simple search. Only `query` and `numResults`. |

| Filtered search, dates, domains, categories, summaries, highlights, subpages | `web_search_advanced_exa` | Enable explicitly in `tools=`. Use this for company/people/papers/news filters. |

| Read known URLs fully | `web_fetch_exa` | Use after search when highlights are insufficient. |

| Code examples/docs | `web_search_exa` | `get_code_context_exa` still exists but is deprecated. |

| Company research | `web_search_advanced_exa` with `category:"company"` | `company_research_exa` still exists but is deprecated. |

| People/profiles | `web_search_advanced_exa` with `category:"people"` | `people_search_exa` still exists but is deprecated. |

## Core Parameters

### `web_search_exa`

- `query` required: semantically rich natural-language query. Can include `category:company` or `category:people`.

- `numResults` optional: default `10`.

- No `type`, `livecrawl`, `contextMaxCharacters`, or `tokensNum` on current hosted schema.

```json

{"query":"latest AI safety research June 2026","numResults":10}

```

### `web_search_advanced_exa`

- `query` required.

- Common optional filters: `numResults`, `type` (`auto` | `fast` | `instant`), `category`, `includeDomains`, `excludeDomains`, `startPublishedDate`, `endPublishedDate`, `startCrawlDate`, `endCrawlDate`, `includeText`, `excludeText`, `userLocation`, `moderation`, `additionalQueries`.

- Content controls: `textMaxCharacters`, `contextMaxCharacters`, `enableSummary`, `summaryQuery`, `enableHighlights`, `highlightsMaxCharacters`, `highlightsQuery`, `maxAgeHours`, `livecrawlTimeout`, `subpages`, `subpageTarget`.

- Categories include `company`, `research paper`, `news`, `pdf`, `github`, `personal site`, `people`, `financial report`.

```json

{

"query":"Anthropic funding valuation 2026",

"category":"news",

"includeDomains":["techcrunch.com","bloomberg.com"],

"startPublishedDate":"2026-01-01",

"numResults":10,

"type":"auto",

"enableHighlights":true

}

```

### `web_fetch_exa`

- `urls` required: array of URLs. Batch multiple URLs in one call.

- `maxCharacters` optional: default `3000`.

```json

{"urls":["https://docs.exa.ai/reference"],"maxCharacters":5000}

```

### Deprecated But Still Available

- `get_code_context_exa`: use `web_search_exa` instead. Current schema is `query`, `numResults`; old `tokensNum` is obsolete.

- `company_research_exa`: use `web_search_advanced_exa` with `category:"company"` instead. Schema is `companyName`, `numResults`; default `3`.

- `people_search_exa`: use `web_search_advanced_exa` with `category:"people"` instead.

- `crawling_exa`: use `web_fetch_exa` instead.

- `deep_search_exa`: use `web_search_advanced_exa` instead; current hosted MCP requires OAuth or an API key when this tool is requested.

- `deep_researcher_start` / `deep_researcher_check`: deprecated; use Exa Research API directly when needed.

## Curl Pattern

1. POST `initialize`; keep returned `Mcp-Session-Id` response header.

2. POST `notifications/initialized` with that header.

3. POST `tools/list` or `tools/call` with that header.

4. If response is `text/event-stream`, parse JSON from `data:` lines.

### Minimal Curl Helper

```bash

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

EXA_SESSION_ID=""

exa_rpc() {

local payload="$1"

local session_header=()

local response

if [ -n "$EXA_SESSION_ID" ]; then

session_header=(-H "Mcp-Session-Id: $EXA_SESSION_ID")

fi

response="$(curl -isS "$EXA_URL" \

-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \

-H 'Accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \

"${session_header[@]}" \

--data "$payload")"

if [ -z "$EXA_SESSION_ID" ]; then

EXA_SESSION_ID="$(printf '%s\n' "$response" | awk 'tolower($0) ~ /^mcp-session-id:/ { sub(/^[^:]+:[[:space:]]*/, ""); gsub(/\r/, ""); print; exit }')"

fi

printf '%s\n' "$response" | sed -n 's/^data: //p'

}

exa_init() {

exa_rpc '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2025-06-18","capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"exa-curl","version":"0.1.0"}}}' >/dev/null

exa_rpc '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"notifications/initialized"}' >/dev/null

}

exa_call() {

local tool_name="$1"

local arguments_json="$2"

jq -nc --arg name "$tool_name" --argjson arguments "$arguments_json" \

'{jsonrpc:"2.0",id:2,method:"tools/call",params:{name:$name,arguments:$arguments}}' |

while IFS= read -r payload; do exa_rpc "$payload"; done

}

exa_init

exa_call web_search_exa '{"query":"latest AI safety research","numResults":5}'

```

Tool output format differs: `web_search_exa` returns formatted text, `web_search_advanced_exa` returns JSON text, and `web_fetch_exa` returns fetched page text.

## Research Practice

- For simple lookup, run one targeted `web_search_exa` call.

- For dated/current questions, calculate exact date ranges first and pass `startPublishedDate` / `endPublishedDate` through `web_search_advanced_exa`.

- For source-heavy tasks, fetch only the best URLs with `web_fetch_exa`; do not dump raw results into the final answer.

- For company/people/paper/news workflows, prefer `web_search_advanced_exa` categories rather than deprecated specialized tools.

- Mention source uncertainty when Exa returns sparse, conflicting, or old results.

## References

- Tool fields: `references/exa-tools.md`