Exa Search

Use this skill for Exa MCP web retrieval.

When to Use

• Current web search
• Web research that needs clean LLM-ready results
• Domain, date, and category filtered search
• Company or people lookup through search filters
• Read full page content from known URLs as markdown

Preferred Tools

• web_search_exa: default search tool
• web_fetch_exa: fetch one or more URLs as markdown
• web_search_advanced_exa: use only when filters or advanced options are needed

Workflow

1. Run list_tools to confirm what the current server exposes.
2. For most tasks, start with web_search_exa.
3. If the user already has URLs, or search results need full content, use web_fetch_exa.
4. Use web_search_advanced_exa only when the task needs filters such as domains, categories, dates, highlights, summaries, or subpage crawling.
5. Prefer the current tools above as the main operating path.

Commands

# Inspect current MCP tools
python3 /var/minis/skills/exa-search/scripts/query.py list_tools

# General search
python3 /var/minis/skills/exa-search/scripts/query.py call_tool web_search_exa '{"query":"latest changes in Exa MCP docs","numResults":5}'

# Fetch page content
python3 /var/minis/skills/exa-search/scripts/query.py call_tool web_fetch_exa '{"urls":["https://exa.ai/docs/reference/exa-mcp"]}'

# Advanced search with filters
python3 /var/minis/skills/exa-search/scripts/query.py call_tool web_search_advanced_exa '{"query":"Exa MCP documentation","includeDomains":["exa.ai"],"numResults":5,"enableHighlights":true}'

Notes

• Base MCP URL: https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp
• Do not assume optional tools are enabled in every deployment; verify with list_tools.
• If the server exposes only the default tools, use web_search_exa + web_fetch_exa as the primary path.

Environment Variables

• EXA_API_KEY: optional for basic use, recommended for higher limits and better reliability.
• If missing when needed, prompt the user to Set EXA_API_KEY.