Exa Web Search MCP server

The Exa MCP Server allows AI assistants like Claude to perform real-time web searches via the Exa AI Search API. This server implements the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to provide AI models with safe, controlled access to up-to-date web information.

Installation Options

Using Remote Exa MCP

Connect directly to Exa's hosted MCP server instead of running it locally:

https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?exaApiKey=your-exa-api-key

Replace your-exa-api-key with your actual Exa API key from dashboard.exa.ai/api-keys.

NPM Installation

Install the Exa MCP server globally:

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 Smithery

Automatically install the Exa MCP server for Claude Desktop:

npx -y @smithery/cli install exa --client claude

Configuration

Configuring Claude Desktop

Find Your Configuration File

1. In Claude Desktop App:

   • Enable Developer Mode from the top-left menu
   • Open Settings → Developer Option → Edit Config

2. From Terminal:

   For macOS:

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

   For Windows:

   code %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
   

Adding Exa Server Configuration

Add this to your configuration file:

{
  "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.

Remote MCP Configuration

For using the remote Exa MCP service:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?exaApiKey=your-exa-api-key"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

The Exa MCP server includes these tools:

• web_search_exa: Real-time web searches with optimized results
• company_research: Comprehensive company website crawling
• crawling: Content extraction from specific URLs
• linkedin_search: Search LinkedIn for companies and people
• deep_researcher_start: Start a smart AI researcher for complex questions
• deep_researcher_check: Check if your research is ready and get results

Selecting Tools

Specify which tools to enable:

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

If you don't specify any tools, all enabled tools will be used by default.

Applying Configuration

After making changes to your configuration:

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

Direct Usage with NPX

Run the server directly using 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,company_research

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

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. Server Not Found

   • Verify the npm link is correctly set up
   • Check Claude Desktop configuration syntax

2. API Key Issues

   • Confirm your EXA_API_KEY is valid
   • Check the EXA_API_KEY is correctly set in the configuration
   • Verify no spaces or quotes around the API key

3. Connection Issues

   • Restart Claude Desktop completely
   • Check Claude Desktop logs

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "exa" '{"command":"npx","args":["-y","exa-mcp-server"],"env":{"EXA_API_KEY":"your-api-key-here"}}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

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

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

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

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect