358 lines
11 KiB
Markdown
358 lines
11 KiB
Markdown
---
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name: web-search-exa
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description: "神经网页搜索、内容提取、公司和人员研究、代码搜索和通过Exa MCP服务器的深度研究。"
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---
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# Exa — Neural Web Search & Research
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Exa is a neural search engine. Unlike keyword-based search, it understands meaning — you describe the page you're looking for and it finds it. Returns clean, LLM-ready content with no scraping needed.
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**MCP server:** `https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp`
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**Free tier:** generous rate limits, no key needed for basic tools
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**API key:** [dashboard.exa.ai/api-keys](https://dashboard.exa.ai/api-keys) — unlocks higher limits + all tools
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**Docs:** [exa.ai/docs](https://exa.ai/docs)
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**GitHub:** [github.com/exa-labs/exa-mcp-server](https://github.com/exa-labs/exa-mcp-server)
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## Setup
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Add the MCP server to your agent config:
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```bash
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# OpenClaw
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openclaw mcp add exa --url "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"
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```
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Or in any MCP config JSON:
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```json
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{
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"mcpServers": {
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"exa": {
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"url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"
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}
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}
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}
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```
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To unlock all tools and remove rate limits, append your API key:
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```
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https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?exaApiKey=YOUR_EXA_KEY
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```
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To enable specific optional tools:
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```
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https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?exaApiKey=YOUR_KEY&tools=web_search_exa,web_search_advanced_exa,people_search_exa,crawling_exa,company_research_exa,get_code_context_exa,deep_researcher_start,deep_researcher_check,deep_search_exa
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```
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---
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## Tool Reference
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### Default tools (available without API key)
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| Tool | What it does |
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|------|-------------|
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| `web_search_exa` | General-purpose web search — clean content, fast |
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| `get_code_context_exa` | Code examples + docs from GitHub, Stack Overflow, official docs |
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| `company_research_exa` | Company overview, news, funding, competitors |
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### Optional tools (enable via `tools` param, need API key for some)
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| Tool | What it does |
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|------|-------------|
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| `web_search_advanced_exa` | Full-control search: domain filters, date ranges, categories, content modes |
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| `crawling_exa` | Extract full page content from a known URL — handles JS, PDFs, complex layouts |
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| `people_search_exa` | Find LinkedIn profiles, professional backgrounds, experts |
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| `deep_researcher_start` | Kick off an async multi-step research agent → detailed report |
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| `deep_researcher_check` | Poll status / retrieve results from deep research |
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| `deep_search_exa` | Single-call deep search with synthesized answer + citations (needs API key) |
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---
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## web_search_exa
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Fast general search. Describe what you're looking for in natural language.
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**Parameters:**
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- `query` (string, required) — describe the page you want to find
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- `numResults` (int) — number of results, default 10
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- `type` — `auto` (best quality), `fast` (lower latency), `deep` (multi-step reasoning)
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- `livecrawl` — `fallback` (default) or `preferred` (always fetch fresh)
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- `contextMaxCharacters` (int) — cap the returned content size
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```
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web_search_exa {
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"query": "blog posts about using vector databases for recommendation systems",
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"numResults": 8
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}
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```
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```
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web_search_exa {
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"query": "latest OpenAI announcements March 2026",
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"numResults": 5,
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"type": "fast"
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}
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```
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---
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## web_search_advanced_exa
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The power-user tool. Everything `web_search_exa` does, plus domain filters, date filters, category targeting, and content extraction modes.
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**Extra parameters beyond basic search:**
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| Parameter | Type | What it does |
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|-----------|------|-------------|
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| `includeDomains` | string[] | Only return results from these domains (max 1200) |
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| `excludeDomains` | string[] | Block results from these domains |
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| `category` | string | Target content type — see table below |
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| `startPublishedDate` | string | ISO date, results published after this |
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| `endPublishedDate` | string | ISO date, results published before this |
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| `maxAgeHours` | int | Content freshness — `0` = always livecrawl, `-1` = cache only, `24` = cache if <24h |
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| `contents.highlights` | object | Extractive snippets relevant to query. Set `maxCharacters` to control size |
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| `contents.text` | object | Full page as clean markdown. Set `maxCharacters` to cap |
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| `contents.summary` | object | LLM-generated summary. Supports `query` and JSON `schema` for structured extraction |
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**Categories:**
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| Category | Best for |
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|----------|---------|
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| `company` | Company pages, LinkedIn company profiles |
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| `people` | LinkedIn profiles, professional bios, personal sites |
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| `research paper` | arXiv, academic papers, peer-reviewed research |
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| `news` | Current events, journalism |
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| `tweet` | Posts from X/Twitter |
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| `personal site` | Blogs, personal pages |
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| `financial report` | SEC filings, earnings reports |
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### Examples
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**Research papers:**
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```
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web_search_advanced_exa {
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"query": "transformer architecture improvements for long-context windows",
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"category": "research paper",
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"numResults": 15,
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"contents": { "highlights": { "maxCharacters": 3000 } }
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}
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```
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**Company list building with structured extraction:**
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```
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web_search_advanced_exa {
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"query": "Series A B2B SaaS companies in climate tech founded after 2022",
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"category": "company",
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"numResults": 25,
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"contents": {
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"summary": {
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"query": "company name, what they do, funding stage, location",
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"schema": {
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"type": "object",
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"properties": {
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"name": { "type": "string" },
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"description": { "type": "string" },
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"funding": { "type": "string" },
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"location": { "type": "string" }
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}
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}
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}
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}
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}
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```
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**People search — find candidates with specific profiles:**
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```
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web_search_advanced_exa {
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"query": "machine learning engineers at fintech startups in NYC with experience in fraud detection",
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"category": "people",
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"numResults": 20,
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"contents": { "highlights": { "maxCharacters": 2000 } }
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}
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```
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**Finding pages similar to a known URL:**
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Use the URL itself as the query — Exa will find semantically similar pages:
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```
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web_search_advanced_exa {
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"query": "https://linkedin.com/in/some-candidate-profile",
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"numResults": 15,
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"contents": { "highlights": { "maxCharacters": 2000 } }
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}
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```
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**Recent news with freshness control:**
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```
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web_search_advanced_exa {
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"query": "AI regulation policy updates",
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"category": "news",
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"maxAgeHours": 72,
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"numResults": 10,
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"contents": { "highlights": { "maxCharacters": 4000 } }
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}
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```
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**Scoped domain search:**
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```
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web_search_advanced_exa {
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"query": "authentication best practices",
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"includeDomains": ["owasp.org", "auth0.com", "docs.github.com"],
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"numResults": 10,
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"contents": { "text": { "maxCharacters": 5000 } }
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}
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```
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---
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## company_research_exa
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One-call company research. Returns business overview, recent news, funding, and competitive landscape.
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```
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company_research_exa { "query": "Stripe payments company overview and recent news" }
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```
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```
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company_research_exa { "query": "what does Anduril Industries do and who are their competitors" }
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```
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---
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## people_search_exa
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Find professionals by role, company, location, expertise. Returns LinkedIn profiles and bios.
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```
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people_search_exa { "query": "VP of Engineering at healthcare startups in San Francisco" }
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```
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```
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people_search_exa { "query": "AI researchers specializing in multimodal models" }
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```
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---
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## get_code_context_exa
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Search GitHub repos, Stack Overflow, and documentation for code examples and API usage patterns.
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```
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get_code_context_exa { "query": "how to implement rate limiting in Express.js with Redis" }
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```
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```
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get_code_context_exa { "query": "Python asyncio connection pooling example with aiohttp" }
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```
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---
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## crawling_exa
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Extract clean content from a specific URL. Handles JavaScript-rendered pages, PDFs, and complex layouts. Returns markdown.
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```
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crawling_exa { "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.07041" }
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```
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Good for when you already have the URL and want to read the page.
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---
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## deep_researcher_start + deep_researcher_check
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Long-running async research. Exa's research agent searches, reads, and compiles a detailed report.
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**Start a research task:**
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```
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deep_researcher_start {
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"query": "competitive landscape of AI code generation tools in 2026 — key players, pricing, technical approaches, market share"
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}
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```
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**Check status (use the researchId from the start response):**
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```
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deep_researcher_check { "researchId": "abc123..." }
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```
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Poll `deep_researcher_check` until status is `completed`. The final response includes the full report.
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---
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## deep_search_exa
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Single-call deep search: expands your query across multiple angles, searches, reads results, and returns a synthesized answer with grounded citations. Requires API key.
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```
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deep_search_exa { "query": "what are the leading approaches to multimodal RAG in production systems" }
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```
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Supports structured output via `outputSchema`:
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```
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deep_search_exa {
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"query": "top 10 aerospace companies by revenue",
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"type": "deep",
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"outputSchema": {
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"type": "object",
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"required": ["companies"],
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"properties": {
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"companies": {
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"type": "array",
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"items": {
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"type": "object",
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"properties": {
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"name": { "type": "string" },
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"revenue": { "type": "string" },
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"hq": { "type": "string" }
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}
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}
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}
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}
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}
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}
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```
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---
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## Query Craft
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Exa is neural — it matches on meaning, not keywords. Write queries like you'd describe the ideal page to a colleague.
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**Do:** "blog post about using embeddings for product recommendations at scale"
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**Don't:** "embeddings product recommendations"
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**Do:** "Stripe payments company San Francisco fintech"
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**Don't:** "Stripe" (too ambiguous)
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- Use `category` when you know the content type — it makes a big difference.
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- For broader coverage, run 2-3 query variations in parallel and deduplicate results.
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- For agentic workflows, use `highlights` instead of full `text` — it's 10x more token-efficient while keeping the relevant parts.
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## Token Efficiency
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| Content mode | When to use |
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|-------------|------------|
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| `highlights` | Agent workflows, factual lookups, multi-step pipelines — most token-efficient |
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| `text` | Deep analysis, when you need full page context |
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| `summary` | Quick overviews, structured extraction with JSON schema |
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Set `maxCharacters` on any content mode to control output size.
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## When to Reach for Which Tool
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| I need to... | Use |
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|-------------|-----|
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| Quick web lookup | `web_search_exa` |
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| Research papers, academic search | `web_search_advanced_exa` + `category: "research paper"` |
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| Company intel, competitive analysis | `company_research_exa` or advanced + `category: "company"` |
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| Find people, candidates, experts | `people_search_exa` or advanced + `category: "people"` |
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| Code examples, API docs | `get_code_context_exa` |
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| Read a specific URL | `crawling_exa` |
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| Find pages similar to a URL | `web_search_advanced_exa` with URL as query |
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| Recent news / tweets | Advanced + `category: "news"` or `"tweet"` + `maxAgeHours` |
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| Detailed research report | `deep_researcher_start` → `deep_researcher_check` |
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| Quick answer with citations | `deep_search_exa` |
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---
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**Docs:** [exa.ai/docs](https://exa.ai/docs) — **Dashboard:** [dashboard.exa.ai](https://dashboard.exa.ai) — **Support:** support@exa.ai
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