Exa MCP Server 🔍

🆕 exa-code: fast, efficient web context for coding agents

Vibe coding should never have a bad vibe. exa-code is a huge step towards coding agents that never hallucinate.

When your coding agent makes a search query, exa-code searches over billions of Github repos, docs pages, Stackoverflow posts, and more, to find the perfect, token-efficient context that the agent needs to code correctly. It's powered by the Exa search engine.

Examples of queries you can make with exa-code:

• use Exa search in python and make sure content is always livecrawled
• use correct syntax for vercel ai sdk to call gpt-5 nano asking it how are you
• how to set up a reproducible Nix Rust development environment

✨ Works with Cursor and Claude Code! Use the HTTP-based configuration format:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Remove-Me": "Disable web_search_exa tool if you're just coding. To 100% call exa-code, say 'use exa-code'."
      }
    }
  }
}

You may include your exa api key in the url like this:

https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?exaApiKey=YOUREXAKEY

You may whitelist specific tools in the url with the enabledTools parameter which expects a url encoded array strings like this:

https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?exaApiKey=YOUREXAKEY&enabledTools=%5B%22crawling_exa%ss%5D

You can also use exa-code through Smithery without an Exa API key.

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A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that connects AI assistants like Claude to Exa AI's search capabilities, including web search, research tools, and our new code search feature.

Remote Exa MCP 🌐

Connect directly to Exa's hosted MCP server (instead of running it locally).

Remote Exa MCP URL

https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp

Claude Desktop Configuration for Remote MCP

Add this to your Claude Desktop configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Cursor and Claude Code Configuration for Remote MCP

For Cursor and Claude Code, use this HTTP-based configuration format:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp",
      "headers": {}
    }
  }
}

NPM Installation

npm install -g exa-mcp-server

Using Claude Code

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

Using Exa MCP through Smithery

To install the Exa MCP server via Smithery, head over to:

smithery.ai/server/exa

Configuration ⚙️

1. Configure Claude Desktop to recognize the Exa MCP server

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:

1. Open your Claude Desktop configuration:

code ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

For Windows:

1. Open your Claude Desktop configuration:

code %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add the Exa server configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "exa-mcp-server"],
      "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.

3. Available Tools & Tool Selection

The Exa MCP server includes powerful tools for developers and researchers:

🔥 Featured: Code Search Tool

• get_code_context_exa: 🆕 NEW! Search and get relevant code snippets, examples, and documentation from open source libraries, GitHub repositories, and programming frameworks. Perfect for finding up-to-date code documentation, implementation examples, API usage patterns, and best practices from real codebases.

🌐 Other Available Tools

• web_search_exa: Performs real-time web searches with optimized results and content extraction.
• 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.
• linkedin_search: Search LinkedIn for companies and people using Exa AI. Simply include company names, person names, or specific LinkedIn URLs in your query.
• deep_researcher_start: Start a smart AI researcher for complex questions. The AI will search the web, read many sources, and think deeply about your question to create a detailed research report.
• deep_researcher_check: Check if your research is ready and get the results. Use this after starting a research task to see if it's done and get your comprehensive report.

You can choose which tools to enable by adding the --tools parameter to your Claude Desktop configuration:

💻 Setup for Code Search Only (Recommended for Developers)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "exa-mcp-server",
        "--tools=get_code_context_exa,web_search_exa"
      ],
      "env": {
        "EXA_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Specify which tools to enable:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "exa-mcp-server",
        "--tools=get_code_context_exa,web_search_exa,company_research,crawling,linkedin_search,deep_researcher_start,deep_researcher_check"
      ],
      "env": {
        "EXA_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

For enabling multiple tools, use a comma-separated list:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "exa-mcp-server",
        "--tools=get_code_context_exa,web_search_exa,company_research,crawling,linkedin_search,deep_researcher_start,deep_researcher_check"
      ],
      "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:

1. Completely quit Claude Desktop (not just close the window)
2. Start Claude Desktop again
3. 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,get_code_context_exa

# List all available tools
npx exa-mcp-server --list-tools

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Built with ❤️ by team Exa