The Exa MCP Server enables AI assistants to perform real-time web searches and access specialized tools using the Exa AI Search API. Here's what you can do with it:
Perform real-time web searches: Query the web for optimized results with customizable parameters (1-50 results).
Search academic papers: Access research-focused content.
Conduct company research: Gather detailed information about businesses.
Extract web content: Crawl specific URLs to read articles, PDFs, or other web pages.
Find competitors: Identify businesses offering similar products or services.
Search LinkedIn: Look up companies and people.
Access Wikipedia: Retrieve structured knowledge from Wikipedia articles.
Search GitHub: Find repositories, issues, and accounts.
Configure custom tools: Enable specific tools via the
--tools
parameter in the configuration.Run standalone server: Use
npx
to launch the server directly.
Exa MCP Server 🔍
A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server lets AI assistants like Claude use the Exa AI Search API for web searches. This setup allows AI models to get real-time web information in a safe and controlled way.
Remote Exa MCP 🌐
Connect directly to Exa's hosted MCP server (instead of running it locally).
Remote Exa MCP URL
Replace your-api-key-here
with your actual Exa API key from dashboard.exa.ai/api-keys.
Claude Desktop Configuration for Remote MCP
Add this to your Claude Desktop configuration file:
NPM Installation
Using Claude Code
Using Smithery
To install the Exa MCP server for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:
Configuration ⚙️
1. Configure Claude Desktop to recognize the Exa MCP server
You can find claude_desktop_config.json inside the settings of Claude Desktop app:
Open the Claude Desktop app and enable Developer Mode from the top-left menu bar.
Once enabled, open Settings (also from the top-left menu bar) and navigate to the Developer Option, where you'll find the Edit Config button. Clicking it will open the claude_desktop_config.json file, allowing you to make the necessary edits.
OR (if you want to open claude_desktop_config.json from terminal)
For macOS:
- Open your Claude Desktop configuration:
For Windows:
- Open your Claude Desktop configuration:
2. Add the Exa server configuration:
Replace your-api-key-here
with your actual Exa API key from dashboard.exa.ai/api-keys.
3. Available Tools & Tool Selection
The Exa MCP server includes the following tools, which can be enabled by adding the --tools
:
- web_search_exa: Performs real-time web searches with optimized results and content extraction.
- company_research: Comprehensive company research tool that crawls company websites to gather detailed information about businesses.
- crawling: Extracts content from specific URLs, useful for reading articles, PDFs, or any web page when you have the exact URL.
- linkedin_search: Search LinkedIn for companies and people using Exa AI. Simply include company names, person names, or specific LinkedIn URLs in your query.
- deep_researcher_start: Start a smart AI researcher for complex questions. The AI will search the web, read many sources, and think deeply about your question to create a detailed research report.
- deep_researcher_check: Check if your research is ready and get the results. Use this after starting a research task to see if it's done and get your comprehensive report.
You can choose which tools to enable by adding the --tools
parameter to your Claude Desktop configuration:
Specify which tools to enable:
For enabling multiple tools, use a comma-separated list:
If you don't specify any tools, all tools enabled by default will be used.
4. Restart Claude Desktop
For the changes to take effect:
- Completely quit Claude Desktop (not just close the window)
- Start Claude Desktop again
- Look for the icon to verify the Exa server is connected
Using via NPX
If you prefer to run the server directly, you can use npx:
Troubleshooting 🔧
Common Issues
- Server Not Found
- Verify the npm link is correctly set up
- Check Claude Desktop configuration syntax (json file)
- API Key Issues
- Confirm your EXA_API_KEY is valid
- Check the EXA_API_KEY is correctly set in the Claude Desktop config
- Verify no spaces or quotes around the API key
- Connection Issues
- Restart Claude Desktop completely
- Check Claude Desktop logs:
Built with ❤️ by team Exa
local-only server
The server can only run on the client's local machine because it depends on local resources.
A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server lets AI assistants like Claude use the Exa AI Search API for web searches. This setup allows AI models to get real-time web information in a safe and controlled way.
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