Exa MCP Tool

---

name: exa-tool

description: Exa MCP integration for advanced search, research, and crawling.

homepage: https://exa.ai

metadata:

{

"openclaw": {

"emoji": "🔍",

"requires": { "env": ["EXA_API_KEY"] },

"primaryEnv": "EXA_API_KEY",

"bins": ["exa-search", "exa-web-search"]

}

}

---

# Exa MCP Tool

This skill provides access to Exa's powerful search and research capabilities through the Exa MCP server.

Available Tools

General Purpose

Specialized Wrappers

Full Tool List (via exa-search)

All tools from the Exa MCP server are available:

| Tool | Description |

|------|-------------|

| `web_search_exa` | Search the web for any topic, get clean content |

| `web_search_advanced_exa` | Advanced search with filters (domains, dates, content options) |

| `get_code_context_exa` | Find code examples, documentation, programming solutions |

| `crawling_exa` | Get full content of a specific webpage from a known URL |

| `company_research_exa` | Research any company for business information and news |

| `people_search_exa` | Find people and their professional profiles |

| `deep_researcher_start` | Start an AI research agent that writes detailed reports |

| `deep_researcher_check` | Check status and get results from deep research task |

Setup

1. Get your Exa API key from https://dashboard.exa.ai/api-keys

2. Set the environment variable:

```bash

export EXA_API_KEY="your_exa_api_key_here"

```

Or add to your shell profile (`~/.bashrc` or `~/.zshrc`):

```bash

export EXA_API_KEY="your_exa_api_key_here"

```

Or create a `.env` file in your workspace:

```bash

echo "EXA_API_KEY=your_exa_api_key_here" > ~/.openclaw/workspace/.env

source ~/.openclaw/workspace/.env

```

3. Restart OpenClaw to load the skill:

```bash

openclaw gateway restart

```

Usage Examples

Basic Web Search

exa-web-search '{"query":"Step-3.5 Flash benchmarks"}'

Advanced Search with Filters

exa-search web_search_advanced_exa '{
  "query": "OpenClaw AI",
  "count": 10,
  "freshness": "pw",
  "includeDomains": ["github.com", "docs.openclaw.ai"]
}'

Code Search

exa-search get_code_context_exa '{
  "query": "OpenClaw agent implementation",
  "count": 5
}'

Crawl Specific URL

exa-search crawling_exa '{
  "url": "https://docs.openclaw.ai/",
  "maxPages": 10
}'

Company Research

exa-search company_research_exa '{
  "company": "OpenClaw",
  "includeNews": true,
  "newsDays": 30
}'

People Search

exa-search people_search_exa '{
  "query": "Phil openclaw creator",
  "count": 10
}'

Deep Research (Two-Step)

# Start research
TASK_ID=$(exa-search deep_researcher_start '{
  "query": "Current state of AI agents in 2026",
  "maxSources": 20
}' | jq -r '.taskId')

# Check status (poll until complete)
while true; do
  exa-search deep_researcher_check '{"taskId":"'"$TASK_ID"'"}'
  sleep 5
done

Output Format

All tools return JSON with the Exa MCP response structure. The actual content is in the `result` field, which varies by tool but typically includes:

Example web search output:

{
  "content": [
    {
      "title": "Step 3.5 Flash - MathArena",
      "url": "https://matharena.ai/models/stepfun_3_5_flash",
      "text": "Step 3.5 Flash benchmarks and performance metrics..."
    }
  ]
}

Using in OpenClaw Agents

Agents can use these tools directly:

// In an agent session
/exec exa-search web_search_exa '{"query":"latest news"}'

// Or via API
{
  "sessionTarget": "isolated",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "agentTurn",
    "message": "Search for recent AI developments using exa-search"
  }
}

Notes

Troubleshooting

**"EXA_API_KEY not set"**

**"406 Not Acceptable"**

**Empty or no results**

References