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exa-mcp-server

A Model Context Protocol server with Exa for web search and web crawling. Provides real-time web searches with configurable tool selection, allowing users to enable or disable specific search capabili…

★ 5k stars↓ 17k/wkupdated 0d agogithub ↗
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▣ Overview
Install in CursorInstall in VS Codenpm version

What it does

Exa MCP Server exposes Exa's web search and crawling APIs to AI assistants. It provides two tools enabled by default—web_search_exa for general web searches and web_fetch_exa for retrieving full page content—plus web_search_advanced_exa for fine-grained filtering by domain, date, content type, and other parameters. All tools connect via HTTP to Exa's hosted service.

Who it's for

Developers building AI-driven code editors, research tools, or any workflow where Claude or another AI assistant needs live web data. Use it to ground AI responses with current information, fact-check claims during code generation, or retrieve full articles and documentation without manual browsing.

Common use cases

  • Fact-check code comments or API documentation claims by searching the web from Claude Code
  • Fetch full webpage content for parsing, analyzing, or extracting structured data
  • Query with advanced filters (domain, date, content type) from within your IDE
  • Ground AI-generated code with current library versions or API docs
  • Perform company and product research without switching tools

Setup pitfalls

  • Requires a valid Exa API key from dashboard.exa.ai/api-keys; without it, all tools fail.
  • When using the npm package locally, set the EXA_API_KEY environment variable; hosted HTTP connectors (Cursor, Claude Desktop) abstract API key handling differently.
  • The advanced search tool is disabled by default; enable it in your client's MCP config if needed.
  • All tools make live network calls to Exa's service—expect network latency and plan for rate limits on high-volume queries.
▣ Score BreakdownMCPScore = Σ(raw × weight)
DimensionRawWeighted
Security
35%
100
35.0
Freshness
25%
100
25.0
Adoption
20%
88
17.6
Quality
10%
90
9.0
Trust
10%
50
5.0
Total
91.6
⚿ Capabilities & Risk Explainer
fs readnetworksecrets
◆ Risk level: medium· 12 tools · auth: API key
fs read + network + secrets — requires access to credentials or environment secrets.
Tool nameDescriptionDestructive?
deep_search_exa✓ no
deep_researcher_start✓ no
agent_get_run_output⚠⚠ yes
agent_create_run⚠⚠ yes
agent_wait_for_run⚠⚠ yes
+7 more tools
people_search_exa✓ no
company_research_exa✓ no
web_search_advanced_exa✓ no
linkedin_search_exa✓ no
get_code_context_exa✓ no
agent_cancel_run⚠⚠ yes
deep_researcher_check✓ no
⚙ Install config
Claude Desktop · Cursor · Windsurf · VS Code (Copilot) · Claude Code
add to your MCP client config:
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa-1": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "exa-mcp-server"
      ]
    }
  }
}
⚙ Maintenance health
maintenance data not yet available — check back later.
⛁ Raw data
weekly downloads17k
github stars5k
forks360
open issues34
license✓ present
readme length27862 chars
last publish0d ago
last commit0d ago
last updated5h ago
install verified✓ pass · 43d ago
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