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.
Prerequisites 📋
Installation 🛠️
NPM Installation
npm install -g exa-mcp-server
Using Smithery
To install the Exa MCP server for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:
npx -y @smithery/cli install exa --client claude
Configuration ⚙️
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:
code ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
For Windows:
- Open your Claude Desktop configuration:
code %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
2. Add the Exa server configuration:
{
"mcpServers": {
"exa": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["/path/to/exa-mcp-server/build/index.js"],
"env": {
"EXA_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
}
}
}
}
Replace your-api-key-here with your actual Exa API key from dashboard.exa.ai/api-keys.
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.
- research_paper_search: Specialized search focused on academic papers and research content.
- 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.
- competitor_finder: Identifies competitors of a company by searching for businesses offering similar products or services.
- linkedin_search: Search LinkedIn for companies and people using Exa AI. Simply include company names, person names, or specific LinkedIn URLs in your query.
- wikipedia_search_exa: Search and retrieve information from Wikipedia articles on specific topics, giving you accurate, structured knowledge from the world's largest encyclopedia.
- github_search: Search GitHub repositories using Exa AI - performs real-time searches on GitHub.com to find relevant repositories, issues, and GitHub accounts.
You can choose which tools to enable by adding the --tools parameter to your Claude Desktop configuration:
{
"mcpServers": {
"exa": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"/path/to/exa-mcp-server/build/index.js",
"--tools=web_search_exa,research_paper_search,company_research,crawling,competitor_finder,linkedin_search,wikipedia_search_exa,github_search"
],
"env": {
"EXA_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
}
}
}
}
For enabling multiple tools, use a comma-separated list:
{
"mcpServers": {
"exa": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"/path/to/exa-mcp-server/build/index.js",
"--tools=web_search_exa,research_paper_search,company_research,crawling,competitor_finder,linkedin_search,wikipedia_search_exa,github_search"
],
"env": {
"EXA_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
}
}
}
}
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:
# Run with all tools enabled by default
npx exa-mcp-server
# Enable specific tools only
npx exa-mcp-server --tools=web_search_exa
# Enable multiple tools
npx exa-mcp-server --tools=web_search_exa,research_paper_search
# List all available tools
npx exa-mcp-server --list-tools
Troubleshooting 🔧
Common Issues
- Server Not Found
- Verify the npm link is correctly set up
- Check Claude Desktop configuration syntax
- Ensure Node.js is properly installed
- 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:
- Node.js should be minimum v18 (or higher)
# macOS
tail -n 20 -f ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp*.log
# Windows
type "%APPDATA%\Claude\logs\mcp*.log"
Built with ❤️ by team Exa