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MCP server · Docs and web search

Exa MCP server

Lets an assistant search the web with Exa and read pages as clean Markdown, with optional multi-step research.

Maintainer
Exa (official)
Licence
MIT
Runs
Remote (URL)
Sign-in
Optional token
Last activity
2026-10-07

Overview

What it does

Exa’s MCP server connects assistants to the Exa search engine. The recommended setup is the hosted endpoint, which works anonymously at rate-limited levels; signing in with OAuth or adding an API key raises the limits. The same code is published on npm as exa-mcp-server.

By default it loads two tools: web_search_exa returns search results with ready-to-use page content, and web_fetch_exa reads one or more known URLs as Markdown. You can opt in to web_search_advanced_exa, which adds domain, date, category and text filters, summaries, highlights and subpage crawling, and to agent_run, which runs an Exa Agent for multi-step research and structured output and needs authentication. Tools are chosen with a tools query parameter on the URL, which replaces the defaults. It suits research tasks where you want full page text in one call rather than a list of links.

Tools

What the assistant can do

  • Web search that returns clean page content
  • Fetch one or more URLs as Markdown
  • Advanced search with domain, date and category filters and subpage crawling (opt-in)
  • Exa Agent runs for multi-step research and structured output (opt-in, needs sign-in)

Install

Install Exa MCP server in your app

You need:

  • An MCP client that supports remote HTTP servers
  • An Exa account (OAuth) or API key for higher limits and Exa Agent (optional)

Run in your project. --scope local keeps the servers private to you in this project; use user for every project.

Terminal
claude mcp add --scope local --transport http exa https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp
  • exa: if the server needs a sign-in, the app will ask (run /mcp in Claude Code).

Want it alongside other servers? Open Exa MCP Server in the MCP config generator and add the rest; it writes one file per app. The snippets follow the setup in the server’s README, checked on 2026-10-14.

Before you install

  • Queries and fetched URLs are sent to Exa’s hosted service; it cannot reach your local files.
  • Fetched page content can contain prompt-injection text, so review actions an assistant takes based on it.
  • If you use an API key, send it as an x-api-key or Authorization header rather than in the URL, and note agent_run usage is billed to your Exa team.
  • A remote server sees whatever the assistant sends it. Sign in with the narrowest access the service offers. See how to choose a safe server.

Why it’s listed

Why we list it

A key-less, well-maintained search server that returns full page text, built and hosted by Exa.

Related

All MCP serversMCP config generatorGuide: MCP servers in Claude CodeGuide: what is MCP?