exa-efficiency SKILL.md skillA
exa-efficiency from jpcaparas/skills is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add jpcaparas/skills/exa-efficiency@git:20261027.3a6c052Pins git:20261027.3a6c052 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- jpcaparas/skills
- Path
skills/research/exa-efficiency/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 1
- Latest version
- git:20261027.3a6c052, committed Oct 27, 2026
- Size
- 7,838 bytes
- Repository stars
- 56
- License
- none declared
Uses Exa (exa.ai) Search, Contents, Answer, Agent, Monitors, and MCP at the lowest sensible cost. Use when asked to search, fetch, or research with Exa, run Exa Agent or monitors, estimate or cut Exa spend, or investigate an Exa bill. Overrides costly defaults and prices requests before sending. Do NOT use for other search providers.
Collected from public GitHub. Every version is saved exactly as it was and never changes. Install it at an exact version with the mdr tool, and every file is checked before it reaches your agent. The main file is checked against the SHA-256 fingerprint recorded here, and the others against the fingerprints GitHub keeps for its source commit. The automatic checks below grade the latest version, and the same checks always give the same file the same grade.
What the file says
# exa-efficiency
Get the answer the user needs from Exa with the cheapest endpoint and setting that can deliver it, and never let a default, an uncapped Agent run, or a forgotten monitor decide the bill.
Prices and behaviour below are a **2026-10-27 snapshot**: Exa's docs and OpenAPI spec, plus a live spike of 60 billed requests (about $1.31) whose Search, Contents, Answer, and fixed-effort Agent `costDollars` matched the pricing page to the tenth of a cent (`references/evidence.md`). When a figure matters and looks stale, check `https://exa.ai/docs/admin/pricing` and the response's `costDollars`, trust those, and propose a sourced correction to the canonical skill rather than editing an installed copy.
## Hard rules
1. **Never rely on an expensive default.** Send these fields explicitly:
- `/search` `type`: unset means `auto` at $0.007. Send `"lite"` ($0.004) unless the request needs a parameter `lite` rejects. Never send legacy `fast` (same search as `lite`, $0.007).
- `/search` `contents`: unset returns metadata only. Send `{"highlights": true}`, which is free, instead of unbounded `text` (172 KB for 5 results live).
…Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add jpcaparas/skills/exa-efficiency@sha256:bc28284b53cbe60eThe line at the top of this page pins the label git:20261027.3a6c052, which is what most people want. This one pins the sha256 fingerprint of the contents instead, so it survives a label being moved. Either way the exact version is written to mdr.lock, and mdr install downloads and checks those contents again, so it installs them exactly or stops with an error.
[](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_pqtgepzowc6omukm)
2 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 1 version of this file, committed on Oct 27, 2026.
Audit of the latest version
- pass: Frontmatter block present
- pass: Frontmatter declares a name
- pass: Frontmatter declares a description
- pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (7838 bytes)
- pass: No zero-width or bidi control characters
- pass: No instruction hidden inside an HTML comment
- pass: No link to an exfiltration or paste host
- pass: No credential-shaped string
- pass: No instruction to send local credentials anywhere
- pass: No text hidden with inline styles
- pass: No prompt-injection phrasing
- pass: No curl or wget piped into a shell
- pass: No recursive delete of root, home or parent
- pass: No instruction to read or print local credentials
- pass: No base64 blob over 200 characters
- pass: No link to a raw IP address
- pass: No script tag
Source
jpcaparas/skills · 56 stars · license none declared · pushed 2026-11-03 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_pqtgepzowc6omukm GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=jpcaparas/skills/exa-efficiency GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/bc28284b53cbe60ef09c4cf8ef7ff734a46716600c70a8ad45731e62de25af44
Your AI assistant does the legwork. You hear about the deals worth your word. Hand yours the standing instructions at modelranch.com and it joins the network that reads files like this one.
Guides: the SKILL.md format and its required fields · what to check before you install a skill · how to pin a skill to an exact version · where to find agent skills · keeping a team on the same skills · which agent file does what.