exa-search

SKILL.md

Exa Search

Drift-prone skill. Exa MCP tool names, parameters, and account limits can
change. Confirm the exposed tool surface and current Exa docs before relying
on a specific search mode, category, or livecrawl behavior.

Neural search for web content, code, companies, and people via the Exa MCP server.

When to Activate

User needs current web information or news

Searching for code examples, API docs, or technical references

Researching companies, competitors, or market players

Finding professional profiles or people in a domain

Running background research for any development task

User says "search for", "look up", "find", or "what's the latest on"

MCP Requirement
Exa MCP server must be configured. Add to ~/.claude.json:

"exa-web-search": {
  "command": "npx",
  "args": ["-y", "exa-mcp-server"],
  "env": { "EXA_API_KEY": "YOUR_EXA_API_KEY_HERE" }
}

Get an API key at exa.ai.
This repo's current Exa setup documents the tool surface exposed here: web_search_exa and get_code_context_exa.
If your Exa server exposes additional tools, verify their exact names before depending on them in docs or prompts.

Core Tools

web_search_exa

General web search for current information, news, or facts.

web_search_exa(query: "latest AI developments 2026", numResults: 5)

Parameters:

Param
Type
Default
Notes

query
string
required
Search query

numResults
number
8
Number of results

type
string
auto
Search mode

livecrawl
string
fallback
Prefer live crawling when needed

category
string
none
Optional focus such as company or research paper

get_code_context_exa

Find code examples and documentation from GitHub, Stack Overflow, and docs sites.

get_code_context_exa(query: "Python asyncio patterns", tokensNum: 3000)

Parameters:

Param
Type
Default
Notes

query
string
required
Code or API search query

tokensNum
number
5000
Content tokens (1000-50000)

Usage Patterns

Quick Lookup

web_search_exa(query: "Node.js 22 new features", numResults: 3)

Code Research

get_code_context_exa(query: "Rust error handling patterns Result type", tokensNum: 3000)

Company or People Research

web_search_exa(query: "Vercel funding valuation 2026", numResults: 3, category: "company")
web_search_exa(query: "site:linkedin.com/in AI safety researchers Anthropic", numResults: 5)

Technical Deep Dive

web_search_exa(query: "WebAssembly component model status and adoption", numResults: 5)
get_code_context_exa(query: "WebAssembly component model examples", tokensNum: 4000)

Tips

Use web_search_exa for current information, company lookups, and broad discovery

Use search operators like site:, quoted phrases, and intitle: to narrow results

Lower tokensNum (1000-2000) for focused code snippets, higher (5000+) for comprehensive context

Use get_code_context_exa when you need API usage or code examples rather than general web pages

Related Skills

deep-research — Full research workflow using firecrawl + exa together

market-research — Business-oriented research with decision frameworks

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