deepsearch

deepsearch asks Exa's neural index questions the way a researcher would. A plain search returns the pages that best match the meaning of a query, with their text already pulled in. A code question gets a context pack instead: examples and documentation excerpts gathered from across the web and sized to a token budget you choose. And when you already know the page you want, a crawl fetches that one page and hands back its words. It runs from the command line or as an MCP server for agents.

An Exa API key is required. Put it in the EXA_API_KEY environment variable; the key is sent to the API as the x-api-key header and never appears in output. When the variable is missing, every operation fails with an error that names it.

Install

npx @reneturcios/deepsearch search "vector index tradeoffs"

Or run the container image:

docker run -i -e EXA_API_KEY ghcr.io/cloudcorprecords/deepsearch

The container defaults to the MCP server (see below). Pass CLI arguments to use it as a CLI instead.

Related MCP server: Exa MCP Server

CLI

export EXA_API_KEY="your api key"

# Web search; --num-results defaults to 8
deepsearch search "ferry electrification programs"
deepsearch search "ferry electrification programs" --num-results 5

# Code context; --tokens sets the budget (1000-50000, default 5000)
deepsearch code "React useState hook examples" --tokens 3000

# Fetch one page in full
deepsearch crawl https://example.com/some/article
deepsearch crawl https://example.com/some/article --tokens 2000

# Machine-readable output for any command
deepsearch search "ferry electrification programs" --json

deepsearch --version

Exit codes: 0 on success, 1 when an operation fails (including a missing EXA_API_KEY or an API error), 2 for usage errors.

MCP server

One bin serves both faces. The mcp subcommand starts a stdio MCP server:

npx -y @reneturcios/deepsearch mcp

MCP client configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "deepsearch": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@reneturcios/deepsearch", "mcp"],
      "env": { "EXA_API_KEY": "your api key" }
    }
  }
}

Tools

These are the original server's default-enabled tools:

Token budgets are clamped to the documented 1000–50000 range and are applied at roughly four characters per token. An empty result set is reported as such; a page the API cannot fetch, a missing key, or a failed API call is reported as a tool error.

Development

npm install
npm run build   # tsc -> dist/
npm test        # node test runner over test/*.test.ts, no network (fake fetch fixtures)
npm run dev     # run the CLI from source via tsx

License

MIT — see LICENSE.