Skill: theishangoswami/web-search-exa (version 2.0.0)

--- name: web-search-exa description: "Neural web search, content extraction, company and people research, code search, and deep research via the Exa MCP server. Use when you need to: (1) search the web with semantic understanding — not just keywords, (2) find research papers, news, tweets, companies, or people, (3) extract clean content from URLs, (4) find semantically similar pages to a known URL, (5) get code examples and documentation, (6) run deep multi-step research with a report, (7) get a quick synthesized answer with citations. NOT for: local file operations, non-web tasks, or anything that doesn't involve web search or content retrieval." --- # Exa — Neural Web Search & Research Exa is a neural search engine. Unlike keyword-based search, it understands meaning — you describe the page you're looking for and it finds it. Returns clean, LLM-ready content with no scraping needed. **MCP server:** `https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp` **Free tier:** generous rate limits, no key needed for basic tools **API key:** [dashboard.exa.ai/api-keys](https://dashboard.exa.ai/api-keys) — unlocks higher limits + all tools **Docs:** [exa.ai/docs](https://exa.ai/docs) **GitHub:** [github.com/exa-labs/exa-mcp-server](https://github.com/exa-labs/exa-mcp-server) ## Setup Add the MCP server to your agent config: ```bash # OpenClaw openclaw mcp add exa --url "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp" ``` Or in any MCP config JSON: ```json { "mcpServers": { "exa": { "url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp" } } } ``` To unlock all tools and remove rate limits, append your API key: ``` https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?exaApiKey=YOUR_EXA_KEY ``` To enable specific optional tools: ``` https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?exaApiKey=YOUR_KEY&tools=web_search_exa,web_search_advanced_exa,people_search_exa,crawling_exa,company_research_exa,get_code_context_exa,deep_researcher_start,deep_researcher_check,deep_search_exa ``` --- ## Tool Reference ### Default tools (available without API key) | Tool | What it does | |------|-------------| | `web_search_exa` | General-purpose web search — clean content, fast | | `get_code_context_exa` | Code examples + docs from GitHub, Stack Overflow, official docs | | `company_research_exa` | Company overview, news, funding, competitors | ### Optional tools (enable via `tools` param, need API key for some) | Tool | What it does | |------|-------------| | `web_search_advanced_exa` | Full-control search: domain filters, date ranges, categories, content modes | | `crawling_exa` | Extract full page content from a known URL — handles JS, PDFs, complex layouts | | `people_search_exa` | Find LinkedIn profiles, professional backgrounds, experts | | `deep_researcher_start` | Kick off an async multi-step research agent → detailed report | | `deep_researcher_check` | Poll status / retrieve results from deep research | | `deep_search_exa` | Single-call deep search with synthesized answer + citations (needs API key) | --- ## web_search_exa Fast general search. Describe what you're looking for in natural language. **Parameters:** - `query` (string, required) — describe the page you want to find - `numResults` (int) — number of results, default 10 - `type` — `auto` (best quality), `fast` (lower latency), `deep` (multi-step reasoning) - `livecrawl` — `fallback` (default) or `preferred` (always fetch fresh) - `contextMaxCharacters` (int) — cap the returned content size ``` web_search_exa { "query": "blog posts about using vector databases for recommendation systems", "numResults": 8 } ``` ``` web_search_exa { "query": "latest OpenAI announcements March 2026", "numResults": 5, "type": "fast" } ``` --- ## web_search_advanced_exa The power-user tool. Everything `web_search_exa` does, plus domain filters, date filters, category targeting, and content extraction modes. **Extra parameters beyond basic search:** | Parameter | Type | What it does | |-----------|------|-------------| | `includeDomains` | string[] | Only return results from these domains (max 1200) | | `excludeDomains` | string[] | Block results from these domains | | `category` | string | Target content type — see table below | | `startPublishedDate` | string | ISO date, results published after this | | `endPublishedDate` | string | ISO date, results published before this | | `maxAgeHours` | int | Content freshness — `0` = always livecrawl, `-1` = cache only, `24` = cache if <24h | | `contents.highlights` | object | Extractive snippets relevant to query. Set `maxCharacters` to control size | | `contents.text` | object | Full page as clean markdown. Set `maxCharacters` to cap | | `contents.summary` | object | LLM-generated summary. Supports `query` and JSON `schema` for structured extraction | **Categories:** | Category | Best for | |----------|---------| | `company` | Company pages, LinkedIn company profiles | | `people` | LinkedIn profiles, professional bios, personal sites | | `research paper` | arXiv, academic papers, peer-reviewed research | | `news` | Current events, journalism | | `tweet` | Posts from X/Twitter | | `personal site` | Blogs, personal pages | | `financial report` | SEC filings, earnings reports | ### Examples **Research papers:** ``` web_search_advanced_exa { "query": "transformer architecture improvements for long-context windows", "category": "research paper", "numResults": 15, "contents": { "highlights": { "maxCharacters": 3000 } } } ``` **Company list building with structured extraction:** ``` web_search_advanced_exa { "query": "Series A B2B SaaS companies in climate tech founded after 2022", "category": "company", "numResults": 25, "contents": { "summary": { "query": "company name, what they do, funding stage, location", "schema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "name": { "type": "string" }, "description": { "type": "string" }, "funding": { "type": "string" }, "location": { "type": "string" } } } } } } ``` **People search — find candidates with specific profiles:** ``` web_search_advanced_exa { "query": "machine learning engineers at fintech startups in NYC with experience in fraud detection", "category": "people", "numResults": 20, "contents": { "highlights": { "maxCharacters": 2000 } } } ``` **Finding pages similar to a known URL:** Use the URL itself as the query — Exa will find semantically similar pages: ``` web_search_advanced_exa { "query": "https://linkedin.com/in/some-candidate-profile", "numResults": 15, "contents": { "highlights": { "maxCharacters": 2000 } } } ``` **Recent news with freshness control:** ``` web_search_advanced_exa { "query": "AI regulation policy updates", "category": "news", "maxAgeHours": 72, "numResults": 10, "contents": { "highlights": { "maxCharacters": 4000 } } } ``` **Scoped domain search:** ``` web_search_advanced_exa { "query": "authentication best practices", "includeDomains": ["owasp.org", "auth0.com", "docs.github.com"], "numResults": 10, "contents": { "text": { "maxCharacters": 5000 } } } ``` --- ## company_research_exa One-call company research. Returns business overview, recent news, funding, and competitive landscape. ``` company_research_exa { "query": "Stripe payments company overview and recent news" } ``` ``` company_research_exa { "query": "what does Anduril Industries do and who are their competitors" } ``` --- ## people_search_exa Find professionals by role, company, location, expertise. Returns LinkedIn profiles and bios. ``` people_search_exa { "query": "VP of Engineering at healthcare startups in San Francisco" } ``` ``` people_search_exa { "query": "AI researchers specializing in multimodal models" } ``` --- ## get_code_context_exa Search GitHub repos, Stack Overflow, and documentation for code examples and API usage patterns. ``` get_code_context_exa { "query": "how to implement rate limiting in Express.js with Redis" } ``` ``` get_code_context_exa { "query": "Python asyncio connection pooling example with aiohttp" } ``` --- ## crawling_exa Extract clean content from a specific URL. Handles JavaScript-rendered pages, PDFs, and complex layouts. Returns markdown. ``` crawling_exa { "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.07041" } ``` Good for when you already have the URL and want to read the page. --- ## deep_researcher_start + deep_researcher_check Long-running async research. Exa's research agent searches, reads, and compiles a detailed report. **Start a research task:** ``` deep_researcher_start { "query": "competitive landscape of AI code generation tools in 2026 — key players, pricing, technical approaches, market share" } ``` **Check status (use the researchId from the start response):** ``` deep_researcher_check { "researchId": "abc123..." } ``` Poll `deep_researcher_check` until status is `completed`. The final response includes the full report. --- ## deep_search_exa Single-call deep search: expands your query across multiple angles, searches, reads results, and returns a synthesized answer with grounded citations. Requires API key. ``` deep_search_exa { "query": "what are the leading approaches to multimodal RAG in production systems" } ``` Supports structured output via `outputSchema`: ``` deep_search_exa { "query": "top 10 aerospace companies by revenue", "type": "deep", "outputSchema": { "type": "object", "required": ["companies"], "properties": { "companies": { "type": "array", "items": { "type": "object", "properties": { "name": { "type": "string" }, "revenue": { "type": "string" }, "hq": { "type": "string" } } } } } } } ``` --- ## Query Craft Exa is neural — it matches on meaning, not keywords. Write queries like you'd describe the ideal page to a colleague. **Do:** "blog post about using embeddings for product recommendations at scale" **Don't:** "embeddings product recommendations" **Do:** "Stripe payments company San Francisco fintech" **Don't:** "Stripe" (too ambiguous) - Use `category` when you know the content type — it makes a big difference. - For broader coverage, run 2-3 query variations in parallel and deduplicate results. - For agentic workflows, use `highlights` instead of full `text` — it's 10x more token-efficient while keeping the relevant parts. ## Token Efficiency | Content mode | When to use | |-------------|------------| | `highlights` | Agent workflows, factual lookups, multi-step pipelines — most token-efficient | | `text` | Deep analysis, when you need full page context | | `summary` | Quick overviews, structured extraction with JSON schema | Set `maxCharacters` on any content mode to control output size. ## When to Reach for Which Tool | I need to... | Use | |-------------|-----| | Quick web lookup | `web_search_exa` | | Research papers, academic search | `web_search_advanced_exa` + `category: "research paper"` | | Company intel, competitive analysis | `company_research_exa` or advanced + `category: "company"` | | Find people, candidates, experts | `people_search_exa` or advanced + `category: "people"` | | Code examples, API docs | `get_code_context_exa` | | Read a specific URL | `crawling_exa` | | Find pages similar to a URL | `web_search_advanced_exa` with URL as query | | Recent news / tweets | Advanced + `category: "news"` or `"tweet"` + `maxAgeHours` | | Detailed research report | `deep_researcher_start` → `deep_researcher_check` | | Quick answer with citations | `deep_search_exa` | --- **Docs:** [exa.ai/docs](https://exa.ai/docs) — **Dashboard:** [dashboard.exa.ai](https://dashboard.exa.ai) — **Support:** [REDACTED_SECRET]


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