Exa Websets MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that integrates Exa's Websets API with Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, and other MCP-compatible clients.

What are Websets?

Websets are collections of web entities (companies, people, research papers) that can be automatically discovered, verified, and enriched with custom data. Think of them as smart, self-updating spreadsheets powered by AI web research.

Key capabilities:

• 🔍 Automated Search: Find entities matching natural language criteria

• 📊 Data Enrichment: Extract custom information using AI agents

• 🎯 Verification: AI validates that entities meet your criteria

• 🔗 Webhooks: Real-time notifications for collection updates

• 📥 Imports: Bring your own CSV data into Websets for enrichment or scoping

Available Tools

This MCP server provides the following tools:

Webset Management

Item Management

Search Operations

Enrichment Operations

Webhooks

Imports

Events

Installation

Installing via Smithery

To install Exa Websets automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @exa-labs/websets-mcp-server

Prerequisites

• Node.js v18 or higher

• Claude Desktop, Cursor, or another MCP-compatible client

• An Exa API key from exa.ai

Using Claude Code (Recommended)

The quickest way to set up Websets MCP:

claude mcp add websets -e EXA_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY -- npx -y websets-mcp-server

Replace YOUR_API_KEY with your Exa API key.

Using NPX

# Install globally
npm install -g websets-mcp-server

# Or run directly with npx
npx websets-mcp-server

Configuration

Claude Desktop Configuration

1. Enable Developer Mode

   • Open Claude Desktop

   • Click the menu → Enable Developer Mode

   • Go to Settings → Developer → Edit Config

2. Add to configuration file:

   macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

   Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "websets": {
         "command": "npx",
         "args": [
           "-y",
           "websets-mcp-server"
         ],
         "env": {
           "EXA_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
         }
       }
     }
   }

3. Restart Claude Desktop

   • Completely quit Claude Desktop

   • Start it again

   • Look for the 🔌 icon to verify connection

Cursor and Claude Code Configuration

Use the HTTP-based configuration. Pass your Exa API key as a Bearer token in the Authorization header (or as an ?exaApiKey=... query parameter as a fallback):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "websets": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://websetsmcp.exa.ai/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_EXA_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Tool Schema Reference

⚠️ Important for AI Callers: See TOOL_SCHEMAS.md for exact parameter formats and examples.

Key Schema Rules:

• criteria must be an array of objects: [{description: "..."}] (NOT an array of strings)

• entity must be an object: {type: "company"} (NOT a string)

• options must be an array of objects: [{label: "..."}] (NOT an array of strings)

These formats ensure consistency across all tools and match the Websets API specification.

Usage Examples

Once configured, you can ask Claude to interact with Websets:

Creating a Webset

Create a webset of AI startups in San Francisco with 20 companies. 
Add enrichments for revenue, employee count, and funding stage.

Listing and Viewing Websets

List all my websets and show me the details of the one called "AI Startups"

Managing Items

Show me the first 10 items from my "AI Startups" webset with all their enrichment data

Adding More Items

Run another search on my "AI Startups" webset for 20 more companies focused on
enterprise voice agents, appending to the existing items

Advanced Enrichments

Add an enrichment to my webset that extracts the company's latest product launch 
and the CEO's LinkedIn profile

Example Workflow

Here's a complete workflow for building a company research database:

1. Create the collection:

   Create a webset called "SaaS Companies" that searches for 
   "B2B SaaS companies with $10M+ revenue"

2. Add enrichments:

   Add enrichments to extract: annual recurring revenue, number of customers, 
   primary market segment, and tech stack used

3. Subscribe to events:

   Create a webhook to https://example.com/hook subscribed to
   webset.search.completed and webset.enrichment.completed

4. View results:

   Show me all items with their enrichment data, sorted by revenue

Tool Details

create_webset

Creates a new webset collection with optional automatic population and enrichments.

Parameters:

• externalId (optional): Your own identifier for the webset (max 300 chars)

• searchQuery (optional): Natural language query to find entities

• searchCount (optional): Number of entities to find (default: 10, min: 1)

• searchEntity (optional): Entity type for the search, e.g. {type: "company"}. For "custom" type include a description.

• searchCriteria (optional): Additional filtering criteria — [{description: "..."}] (max 5)

• searchBehavior (optional): "override" (default) replaces existing items, "append" adds to them

• searchExclude (optional): Imports/websets whose results to exclude — [{source: "webset"|"import", id: "..."}]

• searchScope (optional): Scope the search to existing imports or websets — [{source: "import"|"webset", id: "..."}]; enables hop searches with a relationship object

• searchRecall (optional): Whether to compute recall metrics for the search

• searchMaxPeoplePerCompany (optional): Soft cap on people-per-employer for person searches

• searchMetadata (optional): Key-value metadata to associate with the search

• enrichments (optional): Data enrichments to automatically extract for each item

• metadata (optional): Key-value metadata to associate with the webset

• excludes (optional): Global excludes — sources whose results are omitted across all operations on this webset

Note: there is no top-level name or description parameter on the webset itself. Use update_webset with title after creation, or metadata to attach arbitrary key-value pairs.

Example:

{
  "externalId": "tech-unicorns-2024",
  "searchQuery": "Technology companies valued over $1 billion",
  "searchCount": 50,
  "searchEntity": {"type": "company"},
  "searchCriteria": [
    {"description": "Valued at over $1 billion"},
    {"description": "Technology sector"}
  ],
  "enrichments": [
    {
      "description": "Current company valuation in USD",
      "format": "number"
    },
    {
      "description": "Names of company founders",
      "format": "text"
    },
    {
      "description": "Company stage",
      "format": "options",
      "options": [
        {"label": "Series A"},
        {"label": "Series B"},
        {"label": "Series C+"},
        {"label": "Public"}
      ]
    }
  ]
}

create_enrichment

Adds a new data enrichment to extract custom information from each webset item.

Parameters:

• websetId: The ID of the webset

• description: Detailed description of what to extract

• format (optional): One of "text", "date", "number", "options", "email", "phone", "url" — auto-selected if omitted

• options (optional): When format is "options", the choices the enrichment agent picks from — [{label: "..."}]

• metadata (optional): Key-value metadata to associate with this enrichment

Example:

{
  "websetId": "webset_abc123",
  "description": "Total number of full-time employees as of the most recent data",
  "format": "number"
}

Monitors (scheduled refresh/search) are exposed by the underlying Websets API but are not currently surfaced as MCP tools in this server. Configure monitors directly via the Websets API or websets.exa.ai.

API Endpoints

The server connects to Exa's Websets API at https://api.exa.ai/websets/v0.

Full API documentation: docs.exa.ai/reference/websets

Advanced Configuration

Enable Specific Tools Only

To enable only certain tools, use the enabledTools config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "websets": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "websets-mcp-server",
        "--tools=create_webset,list_websets,list_webset_items"
      ],
      "env": {
        "EXA_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Debug Mode

Enable debug logging to troubleshoot issues:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "websets": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "websets-mcp-server",
        "--debug"
      ],
      "env": {
        "EXA_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Troubleshooting

Connection Issues

1. Verify your API key is valid

2. Ensure there are no spaces or quotes around the API key

3. Completely restart your MCP client (not just close the window)

4. Check the MCP logs for error messages

API Rate Limits

Websets API has the following limits:

• Check your plan limits at exa.ai/dashboard

• Use pagination for large websets

• Monitor API usage in your dashboard

Common Errors

• 401 Unauthorized: Invalid or missing API key

• 404 Not Found: Webset ID doesn't exist or was deleted

• 422 Unprocessable: Invalid query or criteria format

• 429 Rate Limited: Too many requests, wait and retry

Resources

• Exa Websets Documentation

• Exa Dashboard

• MCP Protocol Specification

• Get an Exa API Key

Development

Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/exa-labs/websets-mcp-server.git
cd websets-mcp-server
npm install
npm run build

Project Structure

websets-mcp-server/
├── src/
│   ├── index.ts              # Main server setup
│   ├── types.ts              # TypeScript type definitions
│   ├── tools/                # MCP tool implementations
│   │   ├── config.ts         # API configuration
│   │   ├── createWebset.ts
│   │   ├── listWebsets.ts
│   │   ├── getWebset.ts
│   │   ├── updateWebset.ts
│   │   ├── deleteWebset.ts
│   │   ├── listItems.ts
│   │   ├── createEnrichment.ts
│   │   ├── createSearch.ts
│   │   ├── createWebhook.ts
│   │   ├── createImport.ts
│   │   └── ...
│   └── utils/
│       ├── api.ts            # Shared API client and error handling
│       └── logger.ts         # Logging utilities
├── package.json
└── tsconfig.json

License

MIT

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please open an issue or PR at github.com/exa-labs/websets-mcp-server.

Support

• Documentation: docs.exa.ai

• Discord: Join the Exa community

• Email: support@exa.ai